Black Talk (2000 Ed.)

324 Pages·32.429 MB·English

by  Geneva Smitherman

Smitherman has a love and a good-ear for
. . .
the language. She has culled the words from
—
evefyaspect of black life not just the street
the African American experience."
-CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
boston public library
Square
Copley
BLACK TALK
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also by Geneva Smitherman
Black Language and Culture:
Sounds of Soul
The Voice of Black America
(Set of12 Cassette Tapes)
Talkin and Testifyin:
The Language of Black America
Black English and the Education of Black Children and Youth
Discourse and Discrimination
And Woman?:
Ain’t I a
African American Women and Affirmative Action
African American Women Speak Out
on Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas
Educating African American Males:
Detroit’s Malcolm X Academy Solution
Talkin That Talk: Language, Culture,
and Education in African America
BLACK TALK
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Houghton Mifflin Company
Boston New York
Copyright © 1994, 2000 by Geneva Smitherman
All rights reserved
For information about permission to reproduce selections from
this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company,
215 Park Avenue South, NewYork, NewYork 10003.
3. Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
4.
5. Smitherman, Geneva, date.
Black talk words and phrases from the hood to the
:
—
amen corner / Geneva Smitherman. Rev. ed.
cm.
p.
isbn 0-393-96919-0
—
1. Afro-Americans Languages Dictionaries. 2. English
—
language United States Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
— —
English language United States Slang Dictionaries.
—
Black English United States Dictionaries.
Americanisms Dictionaries. I. Title.
PE3102.N4S65 2000
—
427'.o89'96o73 dc2i 99-40637 cip
Book design by Anne Chalmers
Typeface: Minion; Clarendon and Lettres Eclatees display
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
98765432
qum
10
Text credits appear on page 306.
For Anthony and Amber

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This project was started back in the 1970s when my editor
at the time asked me to prepare a small glossary of terms and expres-
sions for inclusion in Talkin and Testifyin: The Language of Black
America which was subsequently published by Houghton Mifflin in
,
1977. In the years since then, I have been gradually adding to that ini-
tial collection, and numerous people have helped to bring this proj-
ect to fruition at last. Of course, any mistakes or shortcomings in this
book are entirely my own.
First, a word of gratitude for language research in the hood done
by hundreds ofstudents in my courses over the years at Harvard Uni-
versity, Wayne State University, and Michigan State University.
For responding to my call for language surveys and sound advice, I
am indebted to Ana Celia Zentella, Harry Allen, Corey Katsu Taka-
hashi, Yusuf Nuruddin, and Milton Baxter of New York City; Sandra
Wright of New Orleans; Police Chief Benny Napoleon of Detroit;
Gregory Moore and Abdul Alkalimat of Chicago; Mashana
(Deucette) and Milbrun (Deuce) Pearson, Sterling Beasley, and
Kenny Snodgrass of Detroit; Gary Simpkins and Edward Boyer of
Los Angeles; Nathan Magee of Stockton and the Bay Area in Califor-
nia; James Ward of Houston; Perry Hall of Chapel Hill, North Car-
olina, and Ronn Hopkins of Bath, North Carolina; Christianna
Buchner of Munich, Germany; Ron Stephens of Philadelphia; Ezra
Hyland of Minneapolis; and Bobby White of Detroit.
For helpful word lists, I thank John Rickford of Stanford, Califor-
•
AcA*ovv'(4<|a#vve*($ viii
nia; Hilton Morris of Fort Wayne, Indiana; Ronald Butters of
Durham, North Carolina; Police Chief Robert L. Johnson of Lansing,
Michigan; Kimara Sangster of Saginaw, Michigan; and Rafique An-
derson of Detroit.
For steering me to legendary sources of language in the hood, I
thank Henry (White Cap) Rupert and all of his Old School gangsta
partners, but especially Lyin Willie of Chicago, Diamond Joe of At-
lanta, Old Mose and Slick Trick ofLos Angeles, Hustlin Arthur of De-
troit, Slim Jim of Dallas, and the Bad Dudes of East St. Louis and
Yazoo, Mississippi.
A shout out to Milbrun (Deuce) Pearson for pulling me aside back
in the 1980s and making me give a serious listen to Hip Hop. And to
Kofi Davis and Kwame Finn for introducing me to Underground Rap
and serving as guides to the oral culture of Hip Hop. Thanks, Young-
bloods.
My
student research assistants, Kerry Rockquemore and Nicole
Smith, deserve special recognition. In addition to processing data
cards, typing and retyping and retyping, they assisted in the tedious
process of tracking down permission rights and aided me in the
thousand and one laborious and painstaking details necessary to
complete this kind of dictionary. Thanks to Nicole for going above
and beyond the call of duty in countless ways. Much appreciation to
—
Kerry for being a diligent researcher and a stickler for details and
for tolerating my phone calls late in the midnight hour. Props to my
secretarial assistant, Lorraine Hart, for her diligence and to my stu-
dent researcher, Rachel Forbes-Jackson, who persevered through this
new edition as she carried new life.
A
project of this sort needs the guiding hand of a wise and under-
standing editor. Fortunately, I have had two such editors, Elizabeth
(Liz) Kubik for the first edition and Suzanne Samuel for this new edi-
tion. I have benefited immeasurably from their advice and experi-
ence.
In writer and scholar Dr. Keith Gilyard I found a kindred spirit