Entry · catalog no. 2014
around the way
/ əˈraʊnd ðə weɪ /uh-ROWND-thuh-way
phrase · NYC / national · 1990s
✓ Verified
1.
From the neighborhood; local and authentic to the block.
“She's around the way — grew up three doors down from the barbershop.”
Origin & Attribution
African American vernacular for one's own neighborhood — "around the way" meaning from the block, of the community. LL Cool J fixed it in the language with "Around the Way Girl" (1990), an ode to the local girl "visibly from the 'hood." The phrase itself ran through Black city speech well before the record.
1980s
Black city speech for "from the neighborhood"
1990
LL Cool J's "Around the Way Girl"
1990s
Enters wider slang
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
NYC / national · 1990s
Spoken by
Black urban speakers
$AROUNDThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady41 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
66/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1985
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
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See also