Groovy Kind of Word
by Tyler Woods on Jun. 04, 2012, under Life
I was on the phone the other day and someone had stated they would get something delivered by a date that I had desired. I had said to them well groovy, and the person laughed and told me they had not heard that word for decades and it got me thinking…
I still use the word groovy. I am unsure if I ever quit saying it. It is a word that simply makes sense. If you are too young to remember groovy, it means cool, pleasant, or awesome. It is a positive term essentially meaning good. Which of course today we say bad if it is good, as in “Oh, that new car is bad.” In the 60s, we would have said, “Oh, that new car is groovy.” Of course, some people would just say, “Oh, that new car is nice.” Yes, it can be confusing, but good or bad, it all means the same thing.
I began to wonder how groovy came about? No, Austin Powers did not invent the word. In fact, the word has been around for some time. In the 20s and 30s jazz musicians used it if they were in the groove of things and this was basically thought of because of the grooves on a record. Somehow along the way, we stopped using the term, it seemed to disappear, and we did not hear the word used for over a decade.
Midway through the 50s when Beatniks and coffee houses were big, the word resurfaced once again. As the beatniks phased out and the hippy movement began groovy reached its peak. When I say reached its peak, I mean you heard it not only in school yards and social gatherings, you could turn TV on, and shows like Mod Squad, Love American Style, The Dating Game and other groovy hip shows were using the term as regular language. Many songs had the word groovy in it. Groovy Kind of Love, feeling Groovy, Groovy Baby, We’ve Got A Groovy Thing Goin’, Ain’t That A Groove, Hang On Groovy is just a few of the songs that had this wonderful word in it.
The word fizzled by the time the 80s came around. I think it was because everyone cared more about their hair then slang. That was too bad that life in the 80s was about Aqua Net and big hair, but for me, I was still saying groovy. It didn’t matter what people had to say, I did not care, it was all groovy.
Today I still use this word and tell people to use it just to get response. After all, I am still that want to be hippy that wears tie-dye and says groovy. I don’t care what people think, I love how the word makes me feel, and the memories it produces for me. I hope groovy will one day resurface until then, take the time today and if someone says how are you, just say groovy!
