As Lesley M. M. Blume observes in Let’s Bring Back: The Lost Language Edition, while clothing fashions have a way of cycling in and out of popularity, when the sun sets on popular slang, it tends to remain buried forever. This isn’t always a bad thing — no one is jonesing for “Tubular!” and “Groovy!” to resurrect from the 1980s and 60s, respectively.

In some cases, however, where words have died, no equally worthy substitutes have risen in their places. This is particularly the case when it comes to our modern stock of insults and put-downs. If someone we meet or are apprised of in the news conducts themselves in an objectionable way, what words do we have at our disposable to call them? Jerk? Knucklehead? Perhaps we just resort to a set of tiresome, overused, meaningless expletives. Where’s the fun in that?

No, our storehouse of insults could surely use replenishing, and for this re-stocking operation there’s no better place to go than the slang of the 19th century – a time of truly colorful and entertaining verbiage. These old-fashioned put-downs have a flair that modern insults lack — they’re clever, nuanced, descriptive, and quite amusing (at least to the issuer and those who overhear, if not to the receiver!).

more at Source: 50+ Old Fashioned Insults We Should Bring BackManly Slang from the 19th CenturyThree Sheets to the Wind: Nautical Slang in Common UsageHow to Speed Read Like Theodore Roosevelt | The Art of Manliness