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...
Corey in Fort Worth noticed bougie in music and books and wondered how it moved from the Marx-era sense of bourgeois toward a slang insult. Bougie, also spelled boojee, is short for bourgeois and usually criticizes someone as showy, putting on airs...
To “jump steady” refers to either knocking back booze or knocking boots (or, if you’re really talented, both). It’s an idiom made popular by blues singers like Lucille Bogan. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
Julio from Frisco, Texas, asks about “do me a solid,” meaning “do me a favor,” after first hearing it in a context that made him wonder if it had something to do with bowel trouble. The phrase dates at least to the 1960s and appears to come from an...
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...
Who is Cooter Brown? And just how high is he? His name appears in lots of phrases, including “high as Cooter Brown,” “drunk as Cooter Brown,” “dead as Cooter Brown,” “fast as Cooter Brown,” and “fertile as Cooter Brown.” The earliest known...
