Entry · catalog no. 1103
fast-tail
/ /ˈfæst teɪl/ /FAST-tayl
adjective · The South · 1900s
✓ Verified
1.
Of a young girl: seen as boy-crazy or sexually precocious, 'acting grown.' Usually said as a warning or a rebuke ('that fast-tail girl'; 'you fast'), and often applied to ordinary growing-up behavior.
“All she did was put on lip gloss, and here come the aunties calling her fast-tail.”
Origin & Attribution
A Southern Black expression, passed largely among Black women and elders, half warning and half judgment. It sits inside a long history of Black girls being read as older than they are, used to guard against the "Jezebel" stereotype even when a child has done nothing. Reexamined publicly in the 2013 #FastTailedGirls conversation.
mid-1900s
Common in Southern Black households
2013
#FastTailedGirls reexamines the term publicly
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
The South · 1900s
Spoken by
Southern Black speakers, esp. Black women and elders
$FASTTAThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady76 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
38/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1950
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
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
#FastTailedGirls (Mikki Kendall and others) — public conversation · 2013
submitted
■
+ Cite a sourceRewire News, "Of #FastTailedGirls and Freedom" — article · 2013
submitted
See also