My Word is Born

Hi there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Michael Price. I live in Sherman Oaks, California.

Hey, Michael, welcome.

What can we do for you, Michael?

Oh, well, I wanted to share with you, I have a question or a memory of a word.

It’s actually a phrase that turned into a word, which is the word word, the way it’s used in hip-hop culture.

I have a little bit of information, just a personal experience from when I was a teacher in a high school in New Jersey.

Back in the mid 80s, where over the course of the school year, which I believe was 1985 to 1986, which is when hip hop culture was really exploding with fans like Run DMC, where I heard the phrase word is born used by kids as a way of saying like, no, I’m telling you the truth. And they use it a lot saying word is born, word is born. And then by the end of the school year, they were just saying word. And I wonder if you’ve got any information about that.

So mid-80s, New Jersey, prime years for picking up new language from each other, right?

Yeah, definitely.

Do you remember the song Word Up by Cameo?

Wow, no, I don’t.

I mean, I should have.

I was being exposed to, you know, you can’t see me, but I’m one of the, you know, people will say I’m one of the whitest guys of all time. So I was from a mostly white area of central New Jersey, and this was my first teaching job, and it was in a town called Irvington, New Jersey, which was, I’d say the student population there was probably 80% African American.

Well, I asked about the Cameo song because it was popular enough that it charted. I think it even broke top 40, and it’s got lyrics. The song is called Word Up, and it’s all about the word. And this really kind of was the peak for Word and Word Up leaving the slang of African-American culture and migrating to the larger slang used by everybody, no matter whether they were African-American or not.

And a lot of hip-hop has been the path by which black English and the language of black Americans has moved into the larger non-black culture of this country and actually into the language of other cultures and other languages around the world. Because hip-hop has been this interesting ambassador.

And the reason I bring that up is because it goes back further than that. But really, hip-hop was the way that this came about.

There are two lexicographers that I want to bring up who’ve done some work. Geneva Smitherman and Clarence Major both have done work on word, W-O-R-D. We’re talking about when you say something and somebody agrees with you, like word, or you say word up as a way to get attention before you say something that you want people to notice, right?

Is that how your students used it?

I first heard it being used when they were being challenged. They would say something like, you know, I did this the other night, and they would say, no, you didn’t. And they would say, no, no, no, my word is born, which meant you can trust me. I know what I mean. Or like, you better believe me.

So Geneva Smitherman connects the word is born as a corruption of your word is your bond, which was used throughout African-American history as a phrase to say, I trust you. And actually, it’s used in the larger culture as a whole. Word is born came from word is your bond, meaning I trust you.

And Clarence Major traces all these variations of word and word up and word is bond to at least the 1950s. And it’s probably older than that. It’s definitely something that was passed mouth to ear long before it was ever put in print.

And all of this, in turn, goes back to the larger idea of having the last word or having the final word. Like you might say, you are not going to that party tonight, and that’s my final word, something that a parent might say to a child. And it’s kind of sometimes a version of like saying period or full stop after a statement to emphasize it.

You know, it means like that’s absolutely true. That is absolutely, I mean it. You know, it’s absolutely true.

But I work in Hollywood now, so I don’t work in Irvington, New Jersey anymore.

What do they say in Hollywood when they want to say that they’re not lying?

They don’t say they’re not lying. They just lie. They say, trust me, trust me. When they say trust me, then you know you’re in trouble.

Sounds like you speak from experience.

A little bit, a little bit.

That’s funny.

Well, Michael, thank you for that field report.

Yeah, we’d love to hear about the lingo of Hollywood anytime, whether it’s from meetings with producers or the writer’s room or stuff that comes up when you’re doing a pitch or anything like that. Just bring it to us.

We’d love to hear about that insider’s knowledge. That’d be amazing.

I’ve worked in sitcom writer’s rooms for about almost 20 years. So, yeah, I’d be happy to help you with that anytime.

Oh, wow. That’d be fantastic. We could do a whole show on that.

Yeah, please call us again sometime, Michael. Take care.

I will. I will. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Michael.

Sure.

Well, I know that you have memories of you as a fish out of water in a place where you learned a lot of new language really fast from people who had something to teach you.

Well, now you can teach us. Tell us about the language you learned when you were the fish out of water.

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Or tell the whole tale and email to words@waywordradio.org.