The word bougie evolved from bourgeois, meaning characteristic of the middle class. Bougie most often has a derogatory sense. It’s sometimes spelled boojee. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Bougie Origins” Hello, you have A Way...
We often hear that English is going to hell in a handbasket. Actually, though, linguistic handwringing about sinking standards and sloppy speech has been going on for centuries – at least as far back as the 1300’s! And: language also changes to fit...
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...
Is white on rice a racist idiom? No! It simply means that if you’re on top of your tasks like white on rice, it means you’ve got it covered the way rice is covered in whiteness. In Geneva Smitherman’s Talkin and Testifyin, she relays a lyric from...
To sell woof tickets, or wolf tickets, is African-American slang meaning “to threaten in a boastful manner.” Geneva Smitherman, a professor at Michigan State University who’s studied the term, believes it has its origins in the idea of a dog barking...
What’s the origin of the expressions “word!” and “word up!”? Grant shares a theory from the book Black Talk by Geneva Smitherman. Here’s that Eighties-era song