Entry · catalog no. 1044

dun

/ /

noun · Queens, New York ·

✓ Verified

A close friend; your man, your right hand. A term of address, often said in place of the person's name.

“That's my dun right there — we go back years.”

Origin & Attribution

New York address term out of the Queensbridge houses, spread widely by Mobb Deep and the Queensbridge rap scene in the 1990s — a local reworking of "son."

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

Nationwide / diaspora

Queens, New York ·

Spoken by

$DUNThe 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

Citations & Sources

■

Ask Hip Hop, "Dun Language: Mobb Deep, Queensbridge" — article

submitted

■

Mobb Deep, Queensbridge recordings — music · 1990s

submitted

+ Cite a source