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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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We Roll Deep
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2012/05/07 - 11:48am

Grant and Martha discussed this term for the episode "Like a Bad Penny," and their definition struck me as incomplete. In the slang of Southern Californian youth that I'm used to, to roll deep means to be in a group with many people. For example, if I was going to the mall with a big group of friends, I might say "We roll deep" or "We're rollin' deep" as a way of commenting about what a great many people were with us.

Nina
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2012/05/10 - 2:04pm

Kate0akes said:

Grant and Martha discussed this term for the episode "Like a Bad Penny," and their definition struck me as incomplete. In the slang of Southern Californian youth that I'm used to, to roll deep means to be in a group with many people. For example, if I was going to the mall with a big group of friends, I might say "We roll deep" or "We're rollin' deep" as a way of commenting about what a great many people were with us.

Same. When I was a teen we used the phrase as well. "Rolling mob deep" is like when you are literally ROLLING in a vehicle and the car isn't one or 2 people deep, but an entire mob deep.

jock123
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2012/07/15 - 2:52pm

I'd also suggest that, far from being a British expression, it's just an import and variation of the U.S phrase discussed on the show.

 

The use of the “That's how we roll…” construction isn't at all common here in the U.K. (I first came across it myself fairly recently, on an episode of “The Big Bang Theory”), and may not actually exist outside of the group Adele grew up with; my guess is that they have adopted it from a U.S. T.V. show, or a record, and then – because they didn't have a specific understanding of it – have adapted it to mean something amongst themselves. Now, because of her success, it is being re-exported back to the States. But I imagine the same proportion of folks over here are as baffled as you are over there, if they've thought about it at all…

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