Entry · catalog no. 7018
gasser
/ /ˈɡæsər/ /GAS-ur
n. · Harlem, New York · 1930s
✓ Verified
1.
A sensation; a person or thing that is thrilling, wonderful, the very best.
“When it came to dancing, she was a gasser.”
Origin & Attribution
Harlem swing slang, recorded in Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary (1938) as "sensational." A gasser left you breathless — the highest praise a hepcat could pay.
1938
Defined in the Hepster's Dictionary as 'sensational'
1950s
Lingers in jazz and beat speech before fading
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Northeast
Harlem, New York · 1930s
Spoken by
Harlem jazz world, 1930s-50s
$GASSERThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Faded88 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
30/100
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