Entry · catalog no. 7020
final
/ /ˈfaɪnəl/ /FY-nul
v. · Harlem, New York · 1930s
✓ Verified
1.
To leave, to go home for the night, to turn in.
“I finaled to my pad at tick twenty.”
Origin & Attribution
Harlem jive of the 1930s, recorded in Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary (1938): "to leave, to go home." A hepcat did not just go to bed — he finaled to his pad.
1938
Listed in the Hepster's Dictionary: 'to leave, to go home'
1940s
Current in Harlem night-world speech
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Northeast
Harlem, New York · 1930s
Spoken by
Harlem jazz world, 1930s-40s
$FINALThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Faded88 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
20/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1938
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.
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By region — how it actually sounds
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The Bronx, NY
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Philadelphia, PA
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Citations & Sources
■
Cab Calloway, Hepster's Dictionary: Language of Jive
1938
■
+ Cite a sourceCab Calloway, The New Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary, revised edition
1944
See also