Entry · catalog no. 3314
dubs
/ dʌbz /DUHBZ
noun · West Coast / South · 2000s
✓ Verified
1.
Twenty-inch wheel rims. From 'double dime' — a dime being ten, doubled to twenty — shorthand born in hip-hop car culture for big, shining rims.
“He finally put the car on dubs.”
Origin & Attribution
From West Coast and Southern hip-hop car culture around the turn of the 2000s, where "dub" — a double dime, twenty — meant a twenty-inch rim. DUB Magazine, founded in California in 2000, took its name straight from the slang and carried it into the mainstream. Sometimes tied loosely to "W" for double-u; the real root is "double dime."
late 1990s
'Dub' for a twenty-inch rim in hip-hop car culture
2000
DUB Magazine launches, named for the slang
2000s
Standard term for oversized rims
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
West Coast / South · 2000s
Spoken by
Hip-hop car-culture speakers
$DUBSThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Peaked26 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
58/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2000
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
See also