10 words turning 40 in 2016

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This week's question: How old is your vocabulary?

Our language is peppered with words old and new — but do you know their origin stories?

Some are 15,000 years old ("mother"), some come from Shakespeare ("scuffle", "bedazzled", "swagger"), and some are the new kids on the block ("crowdfund," "webisode," "autotune").

Mental Floss recently compiled a list of 40 words turning 40 this year. Most of these are now commonplace, but in the late '70s, they were linguistic pioneers.

Their wordy birthdates come from Oxford English Dictionary citations: Some may have been used in conversation before 1976, but that was the year they entered the written record.

Here's a sampling of these over-the-hill words and phrases — the full list is available on Mental Floss.

1) Bollywood

India's booming film industry earned its portmanteau nickname decades ago, when "Bombay" and "Hollywood" were combined into "Bollywood." The first reference appeared in a mystery novel by H.R.F. Keating.

2) start-up

"Start-up" is a ubiquitous term today, but the editorial staff of Forbes magazine first applied it to fledgling businesses back in the '70s. (Just so you know, sans hyphen, a "startup" is a kind of boot, dating back to 1517.)

3) hacker

According to Mental Floss, this tech term was floating around prior to 1976, but it first appeared in print that year with various definitions: a "compulsive programmer," a "home-computer nut" or "someone who spends much of his time writing computer programs."

4) download

Thank 1976 for another tech term: Science magazine first used "down-load" to describe data transfer on a computer.

5) chicken nugget

No, McDonald's did not invent the term. The OED citation credits it to Troy's Fish House in Jackson, Mo.

6) Jazzercise

First came dancercise, then came Jazzercise. The combination of modern dance moves and cardio made its debut in the 1970s. (In case you're curious, Spandex dates back to 1959.)

7) endorphin

Perhaps inspired to find out why those who Jazzercised were so happy, scientists discovered endorphins — a brain chemical which produces a feeling of euphoria and can be released during exercise.

8) exit poll

Can you imagine political coverage without the exit poll? The New York Times coined this term in 1976.

9) buckle up

You can't buckle up without a seat belt, so it took until the '70s — when the safety devices became more common — for the phrase to catch on.

10) ditzy

Texas Monthly brought this term to the masses, describing "ditzy ladies' things" in 1976.