begin to be used in a widespread way. This
way, our language renews itself and changes with the times. Slang words show the attitudes of the group or sub-culture that uses them.Slang can appear as a brand new word, a new meaning for an existing word, an abbreviation for a word, or a word that becomes more generalized than its former, narrow meaning.
It may help to go over what is not considered slang. Slang is not dialect, colloquialism, or catch phrases, where both parties are familiar with the references, like “Beam me up, Scotty” from Star Trek. It is not jargon, which is limited to a certain field, or slogans used in advertising. Graffiti is not slang, nor is any special language used in a secret group.
By the 18th century, the differences between America and other English speaking countries prompted the evolution of slang. For a time, any words not used in Britain were considered slang. Originally considered to be the language of foreigners and criminals, slang began to be used by writers in the 1900s.