Entry · catalog no. 1002
dig
/ /
verb · Harlem / national ·
✓ Verified
1.
To understand, appreciate, or take real notice of something — comprehension with feeling in it.
“You dig what I'm saying, or do I need to spell it out?”
Origin & Attribution
Black jazz vernacular of the 1930s Harlem scene, recorded in Cab Calloway's 1938 Hepster's Dictionary. Some linguists have proposed the Wolof "dëgg" — to understand — as a root. It passed to the beats, the hippies, and everyone since, from a Black bandstand.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
Harlem / national ·
Spoken by
$DIGThe Record · cultural traction
▲ 26 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
60/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
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
See also