How were new slang and popular sayings/phrases spread before media?

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Like how goodbye started off as god be with you but morphed into goodbye. How did it go from one person saying it to everyone in a country saying it if there was no radio or tv to spread the word?

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5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

People talk to each other.

People write things, then other people read them.

Civilization and communication existed before electricity.

Anonymous 0 Comments

There is no such thing as before media. Media refers to all the different ways humans used to communicate. Even just talking to each other is a medium of communication.

And since just talking to each other was the most common form of communication, that is most responsible for how phrases spread. Sometimes you might get a famous storyteller to use a phrase, at which point it might spread even faster, ir it might get written down in some of the rare books which might make it last for longer, but ultimately whether or not it caught on would depend on whether or not people were saying it.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Ever heard the phrase “word of mouth?”

Anonymous 0 Comments

Kilroy was here.

Spread through graffiti, somehow, to the unlikeliest of places.
Graffiti, of course, being a form of media.
Printed books and newspapers are also media, lots of popular sayings spread from popular books.

Anonymous 0 Comments

In the 1970s, we in the expat community in Kenya, were singing the same stupid songs and playing the same games as kids in the UK and US.

“[Jingle Bells, Batman smells](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5u9JSnAAU4&ab_channel=TomScott)….”