Entry · catalog no. 5022
Becky
/ /ˈbɛki/ /BEK-ee
noun · National · 1990s
✓ Verified
1.
A generic name for a white woman, used from within Black communities.
“Some Becky at the next table kept asking to touch her hair.”
2.
A white woman who is unaware of, or ignores, how her privilege and bias affect Black people; also in compounds such as Barbecue Becky.
“She called the police on a birthday cookout, straight Becky behavior.”
Origin & Attribution
Merriam-Webster reports the word is increasingly used as an epithet, especially for a white woman ignorant of both her privilege and her prejudice, and cites the writer Damon Young of The Root among those who trace the probable origin of the modern usage to the opening of Sir Mix-a-Lot's 1992 "Baby Got Back," where a white woman tells her friend Becky to look at another woman's body. That attribution is a probable source given by commentators, not a documented first use by speakers. The word was taken up and reshaped in Black discourse, and Beyoncé's "Sorry" on Lemonade (2016), with its "Becky with the good hair," carried it to a mass audience. Merriam-Webster also notes a separate strand tied to a Plies song from 2009 and the 2018 "BBQ Becky" news incident. Earlier literary Beckys, such as Becky Sharp, are unrelated to this sense. The word is charged: used chiefly in-group, and read as pointed when a white speaker meets it.
1992
'Baby Got Back' opens with a call to 'Becky'
2016
Beyoncé's 'Sorry' popularizes 'Becky with the good hair'
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
National · 1990s
Spoken by
Black Americans; widely known online since 2016
$BECKYThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady34 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
1992
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
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Sir Mix-a-Lot, 'Baby Got Back' (Mack Daddy), opening dialogue
1992
■
Beyoncé, 'Sorry,' Lemonade
2016
■
+ Cite a sourceMerriam-Webster, 'Words We're Watching: Becky'
online
See also