Entry · catalog no. 9209
bootylicious
/ /ˌbuːtiˈlɪʃəs/ /BOO-tee-LISH-us
adjective · Los Angeles and Houston (1990s to 2001) · 1990s
✓ Verified
1.
Sexually attractive, especially of a woman with a full figure. The word blends 'booty' (the buttocks) with the '-licious' ending of 'delicious'.
“She walked in bootylicious and knew it.”
Origin & Attribution
The earliest use found is Snoop Dogg's on 'Fuck wit Dre Day (And Everybody's Celebratin')' on Dr. Dre's The Chronic (1992). A character in the TV series A Different World used it in 1993. Houston group Destiny's Child made it famous with 'Bootylicious' (Columbia, released 22 May 2001, from the album Survivor), which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The Oxford English Dictionary added it in 2004. The word is a Black American coinage of the early 1990s West Coast rap era, and Destiny's Child popularised it rather than inventing it.
1992
Snoop Dogg uses the word on The Chronic
2001
Destiny's Child release 'Bootylicious'
2004
Oxford English Dictionary adds the word
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Los Angeles and Houston (1990s to 2001) · 1990s
Spoken by
Hip-hop artists, R&B artists and fans, then general American usage
$BOOTYLThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Fading9 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
45/100
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
Recorded here
2026
point of first record
Mainstream crossover
2001
search interest spikes
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
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Atlanta, GA
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Memphis, TN
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Citations & Sources
■
Dr. Dre, The Chronic, 'Fuck wit Dre Day' (1992)
recording
■
Destiny's Child, 'Bootylicious' (2001)
recording
■
+ Cite a sourceWikipedia, 'Bootylicious' (1992 and 2004 dates); secondary
web
See also