Entry · catalog no. 9504
fly girl
/ /ˈflaɪ ˌɡɝl/ /FLY GURL
noun · New York City · 1980s
✓ Verified
1.
A young woman with style, confidence and looks, in the language of hip-hop. Also the name for the dancers on In Living Color.
“She came through in the fresh sneakers and the big earrings, a real fly girl.”
Origin & Attribution
Rests on the Black urban sense of "fly" as stylish and sharp, in use through the twentieth century. The compound is hip-hop era New York: the Boogie Boys recorded "A Fly Girl" in 1985 and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five recorded "Fly Girl" in 1988. In Living Color's Fly Girls dancers, choreographed by Rosie Perez, debuted in 1990 and popularized the term on national television; the show did not coin it.
1985
Boogie Boys release "A Fly Girl."
1988
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five release "Fly Girl."
1990
In Living Color's Fly Girls dancers popularize the term.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
New York City · 1980s
Spoken by
Black and Latina women and hip-hop communities
$FLYGIRThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Fading5 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
40/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1985
in the culture
Recorded here
2026
point of first record
Mainstream crossover
1990
search interest spikes
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
■
Boogie Boys, 'A Fly Girl' (1985), as cited in Nerdist, 'The Lasting Impact of In Living Color's Fly Girls'
song, 1985
■
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, 'Fly Girl' (1988), as cited in Nerdist
song, 1988
■
+ Cite a sourceIn Living Color (Fox, 1990), choreography by Rosie Perez
TV, 1990
See also