Like our environment, our language evolves over time. What's a common phrase to one generation might sound foreign to the next (as anyone with a teen can attest to). Yet, you'd be surprised at how many common words today didn't even exist 40 years ago. Here are just a few that would stump a time-traveler.

It's hard to believe we haven't been referring to the guests-of-guests as "plus ones" before 1977, isn't it? It's so much easier than saying what they really are: "The hastily-booked date that hopefully won't make an embarrassing scene."

This word could accurately describe most prestige TV/streaming programming these days, but back in '78, you were more likely talking about an art house film when you used this term.

Though the phrase refers to gorgeous things, it does immediately conjure up a rather unsettling mental image. Had you used this a decade earlier, someone would likely think you were referring to something a bit more psychedelic than, say, inspiring art.

This might be a word that's dying off as more people treat voice messages as burdens, but it has had a good 37-year run.

Only when our food industries evolved to offer so many more choices that we'd be able to have a term to refer to such gustatory preciousness. It was preceded by "gourmet," which does imply a bit more classical knowledge.

Do-gooders with the means to travel have been around since the dawn of time, but environmentally-conscious journeys didn't have a trendy label until 1980.

Ridiculous but strangely riveting, the informercial was one of the most '80s things ever to come out of the '80s. When airtime was a little harder to come by pre-cable, energetic spokespeople had to find other novel ways to hawk "amazing" inventions.

The Spice Girls would've never had their greatest hit if it weren't for the booming '80s and the consumer-fueled preoccupation with status markers.

It's funny that this phrase didn't spring up around our booziest decades (the '50s and '60s). Though it didn't commonly exist in the cocktail era, this is one term that would likely be welcomed into vocabulary back then.

Like the coffee industry, the beer industry went from being dominated by a few corporate giants of middling quality to a robust range of brands big and small. We have infinite choices in the beer aisle(s) and on taps, which is something we didn't have before small-scale microbrews came into being.

The '80s were about excess in every form, so of course this decade would invent the duck and chicken-stuffed turkey. Though, when we think about it, is it really so much worse than the Jello monstrosities of the '50s? Hmm.

The '80s shopping mall boom sent many into a frenzy fueled by easy credit. Today, shopaholics are harder to spot, what with the internet and all.

The rise of corporations (and tech) in the '80s gave birth to a new kind of business-speak, and "FAQ" was one of them. It gives the illusion of addressing the needs of a consumer or client while sticking to a corporate's vision, making it uniquely suited for the modern era.

Another phrase that perfectly describes its subject — the sheer anger one can experience just commuting in traffic. But, sadly, this word really became a "thing" due to shocking crime stats.

Isn't it silly that we didn't have such a perfect word to describe the single-browed among us until 1988? Perhaps "monobrow" preceded it, but unibrow just sounds better.

Before we put on our hoodies to go to the gym, we merely said we were putting on a "hooded sweatshirt." This is a much better word.

And here's where we explain how we used to call in to radio stations to say hi to our friends, who were also listening to the radio.

As we know it, the phrase "millennial" sprang into our consciousness after 1991. In its early days, it didn't convey much info other than a catch-all term for children who would be coming of age around the year 2000. Today, it's shorthand for anyone under 30ish.

We admit to thinking this word was older than it was, mainly because a. It's French, and b. We're not artists. But since giclee refers to a printing process made possible that year, you wouldn't have heard this phrase before 1991.

Homes have gotten much more spacious over time — and perhaps we've struggled to find adequate use of all that extra room. In the decades were homes were much smaller and expected to be comprised mainly of shared spaces, it would be the mark of luxury to boast of a room solely dedicated to … well, whatever one does in a man cave.

It's really another perfect word to describe a reaction that's neither positive nor negative. But were you to say this in other eras, someone would likely think it was a tic of some sort rather than a word.

The "shopaholics" of the '80s gave way to the shoppers of more discriminating tastes in the '90s — and thus, the "Fashionista" designation came into being. Though it's always been one of those words you see (in print, on blogs, or in social media) than hear actually said out loud, perhaps the earlier generations of fashion mags would've appreciated having this in their vocabulary.

Another kinda-corporate term that often doesn't mean much at all, but here you go.

Environmentally-conscious individuals didn't have the right words to describe the process of making things like totes made out of old plastic bottles until the '90s.

Again, French fools us into thinking something is much older than it actually is. Though macaron-type confections can be traced back centuries, it wasn't until the twentieth century that Pierre Desfontaines joined two macaron shells together to create the sandwiched bit of joy we know and love today as the macaron. And it didn't enter the Merriam-Webster dictionary until 1995.

The high-low marriage of gastronomy and pubs gave birth to this word, which we felt always sounded more medical than anything else. Referring to this 40 years ago (if a gastropub even existed) would surely get you a "Get well soon" card.

Though it's certainly a tired word these days, "bling" does nicely describe the eye-catching effect of well-chosen jewels and precious metals. And while it sprang from the hip-hop world to general vocabularies in 1999, we think that a bedazzled Elizabeth Taylor would've loved using this word to refer to her massive Richard Burton-given ring.

The obsession with efficiency that rose during the first dot-com boom also tried to transform the dating landscape with quick dates. We still see these events advertised now and then, but now that singles rely on Tinder, this might go the way of the phrase "video dating."

Perhaps played on our Palm Pilots, Sodoku puzzles kept minds busy during downtime, then became a craze.

Obama-Biden. Clooney-Pitt. Damon-Affleck. The list of famous bromances goes on and on, but if you used this term in the less accepting decades preceding when this term was coined, you wouldn't exactly get a warm reaction.

Self-portraits go way, way back, of course. But "portrait" was too grand a word to describe the photos taken using webcams, digital cameras, and (later) smartphones, especially when taken in a mirror, a car, or in a room solo. We imagine a world in the future, where octogenarian millennials show younger generations albums of hundreds of images of selfies.

Social media made friendships into a public spectacle — and also broadened what could be considered a friendship. Before, when our circles were much smaller, you'd have a "falling out" or "lost touch" with a friend. But to "unfriend" is as easy as a click of a button.

It's a much better way to express "I need a few days to myself and don't plan on changing out of my yoga pants" — and made the idea a little more socially acceptable in the process. Though the word was first used in 2003, it became more common during the recession. Interestingly, it peaks in popularity every summer, perhaps when parents inform their kids of low-key summer vacation plans.

It's hard to believe that we've been kind of cringing at this cutesy term for about 14 years now. But if you time-traveled to a 1973 baby shower and described the mother-to-be as having a "baby bump," you'd likely inspire a panicked expression and a doctor visit.

Surprisingly, this term predates the introduction of Netflix's streaming service (which debuted in 2007, also known as the year your Saturday nights became couch-bound), and likely referred to back-to-back DVD binges.

The dominance of corporate farming and massive supply chains made the practice of only eating locally-sourced foods, fruits, and vegetables into a lifestyle. Before our food culture was transformed, doing this wouldn't be seen as anything out of the ordinary and thus not worth coining a catchy name for.

You're kind of reading one now. They've been categorized doubly as something that made the internet more fun and something that ruined media, but they're a unique product of our modern age.

We do have a suspicion that as long as there have been cameras, there have been those kinds of people who love nothing more than to ruin a perfectly good photo. But in 2008, we decided that sort of thing was socially acceptable, thanks to how easy it is to take a photo with our then-new smartphones.

It's a word that sprung forth from the need to adequately convey one's physical reaction to something they read on the internet, so we can't quite imagine this word would ever be needed pre-home-computer/internet.

Humblebrags are as old as time — we might one day find evidence of people managing these back-door-boasts in ancient Greek . (Perhaps a tablet that reads, "It's so difficult to find a toga that fits my perfectly-formed body.") Yet we didn't have quite the perfect phrase to refer to such social irritants until 2011.