It can be hard to really understand a decade until it’s long over. Even after 30 years have passed, the 1980s are difficult to distill. You can’t boil down the AIDS crisis, the Reagan presidency, the Challenger explosion, hair metal bands, the fall of the Berlin Wall, leg warmers and the beginning of the war on drugs down to a single symbol — though the Rubik’s Cube might get us close. There are countless different angles to take when looking at a period of 10 years, and here we’ll zoom in on just one: 1980s slang. Or, if you prefer, 80s slang — the vocabulary that made the decade sound like itself. Slang can reveal the cultural undercurrents of a time period. It’s mostly used by young people — women and Black people especially — and the 1980s were the heyday of Gen Xers, a generation too often overlooked. Let’s look at just a few of the slang words and phrases that became popular during this iconic decade. 1980s Slang Words And Phrases Gag me with a spoon! Meaning: That’s disgusting!…