Entry · catalog no. 0567
frontin
/ /ˈfrʌntɪn/ /FRUN-tin
verb · New York City; nationwide · 1980s
✓ Verified
1.
Putting up a false front — pretending to toughness, money, or indifference you do not have. The accusation lands hardest as a participle: you frontin'.
“He was frontin' like the whip was his — that's his cousin's car.”
Origin & Attribution
African-American Vernacular English. "Front" as a false face runs back through 19th-century underworld slang, but the accusatory posture sense hardened in 1980s hip-hop New York, where calling out a fake was half the art form. Pharrell's "Frontin'" (2003) made it a pop title without changing its meaning.
1980s
The posture sense hardens in New York hip-hop
2003
Pharrell's Frontin' carries the word to pop radio
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
New York City; nationwide · 1980s
Spoken by
Hip-hop New York, then Black America nationwide
$FRONTIThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady23 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
78/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2003
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
Citations & Sources
■
Pharrell feat. Jay-Z, Frontin', Star Trak
2003
■
+ Cite a sourceA Way with Words, From Pickpockets to Hip-Hop, Fronting Became Slang for Faking
2010s
Also spelled
See also