roaring twentiesn.

Brit.

/ˌrɔːrɪŋ ˈtwɛntɪz/, U.S.

/ˌrɔrɪŋ ˈtwɛn(t)iz/

Forms: 1800s– roaring twenties, 1800s– roaring 20s, 1800s– roaring '20s. Also with capital initials.

Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: roaring adj., twenty n.

Etymology: < roaring adj. + the plural of twenty n., perhaps punningly after roaring forties n.

1. With the. Cf. roaring adj. 3c.

†a. The third decade of the nineteenth century, the 1820s, characterized as an exciting or dramatic time. Obsolete.

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1899 Truth (Sydney) 5 Feb. 8/6 ‘Lincoln Bill’, the nickname of a famous old coach-driver of the roaring twenties.

1909 Spectator 26 June (Suppl.) 1004/2 Mr. Toynbee..possesses considerable skill in..sketching the portraits both of the greater and the lesser lights of what one may venture to call ‘the roaring twenties’.

b. The third decade of the twentieth century, the 1920s, esp. characterized as a period of post-war buoyancy, optimism, and change.

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the world > time > relative time > the past > historical period > [noun] > specific centuries, decades, or years

fire year1673

quattrocento1854

the hungry forties1905

dix-huitième1920

roaring twenties1923

Dirty Thirties1931

1923 Evening State Jrnl. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 15 Aug. 3 Up to the big movie slump of 1920... new companies were springing up like mushrooms... But the roaring twenties have gone.

1930 Sat. Rev. 15 Mar. 328 The giants of the roaring 'twenties ought to be able to achieve glory of some sort in half as many years.

1978 Dædalus Fall 30 The massacre of the young officers..meant that countless positions..had become vacant in all spheres of society; this led to..a more youthful establishment; hence, the Roaring Twenties.

2009 Ontario Hist. (Nexis) 22 Mar. The flapper was one of the most prominent symbols and concerns of the ‘roaring twenties’.

2. The third decade of life, a person's twenties, regarded as an especially active, carefree, or exciting period. Now rare.

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1912 World’s News (Sydney) 19 July 14/2 You will see..very elderly persons skipping round as fresh and combative as pertains to the roaring twenties.

1920 Everybody’s Mag. Feb. 111/1 He had proved that certain qualities of the human creature are not much different at forty-five from what they were in the ‘roaring twenties’.

1987 Washington Post 17 Nov. (Health Suppl.) 17/4 When I smoked—two packs a day for about 25 years, from..Camels and Gauloise (Bleu) in my roaring twenties to Carltons approaching mid-century.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2022).

roaring twenties n. (also roaring 20s, roaring '20s, and with capital initials) [perhaps punningly after roaring forties n.] the third decade of the twentieth cent., the 1920s, esp. characterized as a period of post-war buoyancy, optimism, and change.

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