Cecily from Indianapolis, Indiana, asks whether expressions she first heard in African-American English, such as hit us up and it’s been a minute, have long moved from minority communities into majority speech. Covert prestige describes the cultural...
A San Diego, California, 12-year-old whose last name is Jones wonders: Why do so many African-Americans as well as European Americans share the same last name? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “The Common Name “Jones”” Hello, you...
Learning that fat meat is greasy, which means learning something the hard way, is a common idiom used almost exclusively in the African-American community, and refers to a juicy cut of the pig called fatmeat. Linguist Geneva Smitherman has a great...
Boo, as in my boo for a sweetheart or other loved one, became especially visible in African-American speech and music in the mid-1990s, including in the song “My Boo” by Ghost Town DJs. The term is definitely older than that, though, and may have...
The song Old Dan Tucker has a long history in the United States, going back to the minstrel shows of the 1840s. Martha highly recommends the documentary Ethnic Notions about our country’s complicated history with racially-charged imagery in theater...
Evita, calling from Los Angeles and living in Chula Vista, California, asks about saditty or seditty, an African-American term for someone — usually a woman — who acts stuck-up or as if she’s better than others. The word appears in African-American...
