Entry · catalog no. 7561
carryout
/ /ˈkæri aʊt/ /KAIR-ee-owt
noun · Washington, D.C. and the DMV · 1970s
✓ Verified
1.
In D.C., the corner takeout spot itself — the counter, the plexiglass, the wings with mumbo sauce. You don't order carryout; you go to the carryout.
“Grab me lemon pepper wings from the carryout on Georgia Ave.”
Origin & Attribution
Black Washington, D.C. After 1968, storefront takeouts anchored the city's Black neighborhoods east of the park, and D.C. speech made carryout a noun for the place itself. Mumbo sauce is its signature; the carryout is its home.
1968
After the riots, storefront carryouts — many Chinese-owned — anchor D.C.'s Black corridors
1990s
Mumbo sauce and wings define the carryout canon
2010s
Gentrification thins the carryouts; the press documents what they meant
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Washington, D.C. and the DMV · 1970s
Spoken by
Black Washington, D.C. and the DMV
$CARRYOThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady58 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
48/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1968
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
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Atlanta, GA
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Memphis, TN
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Citations & Sources
■
Georgetown Voice, Mumbo Sauce: The Taste of Washington
2018
■
+ Cite a sourceWashington Post, Get reacquainted with D.C. through its famous mumbo sauce
2020
See also