Entry · catalog no. 7016
barbecue
/ /ˈbɑːrbɪkjuː/ /BAR-bih-kyoo
n. · Harlem, New York · 1930s
✓ Verified
1.
A girlfriend or sweetheart; a fine-looking woman. Swing-era Harlem slang.
“He came through the Savoy with his barbecue on his arm.”
Origin & Attribution
Harlem jive of the 1930s, cataloged in Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary (1938), the first published guide to the swing-era hepcats' language, where it is defined as "the girl friend, a beauty." The sense is admiring, not culinary.
1938
Defined in Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary as 'the girl friend, a beauty'
1944
Carried into the revised edition
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Northeast
Harlem, New York · 1930s
Spoken by
Harlem jazz world, 1930s-40s
$BARBECThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Faded88 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
35/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1938
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
@bxgriot
The Bronx, NY
@phillyanne
Philadelphia, PA
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Citations & Sources
■
Cab Calloway, Hepster's Dictionary: Language of Jive
1938
■
+ Cite a sourceCab Calloway, The New Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary, revised edition
1944
See also