Entry · catalog no. 1023

gate

/ /ɡeɪt/ /GAYT

noun · Harlem, New York City · 1930s

✓ Verified

A man; used as a friendly term of address, roughly the way a later generation would say "man," "cat," or "homie." A greeting between hepsters and musicians.

“What's the word, gate?”

Origin & Attribution

Harlem jive of the swing era. Recorded in Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary in 1938 as any man, usually used in greeting. Trumpeter Louis Armstrong carried the nickname "Gate" for exactly this reason. It ran through the language of Black musicians decades before "cat" became the standard.

1938

Recorded in Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary

1950s

Displaced by 'cat' as term of address

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

The Northeast

Harlem, New York City · 1930s

Spoken by

Harlem hepsters and musicians

$GATEThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Faded

88 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

22/100

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.

Hear it spoken

By region — how it actually sounds

@bxgriot

The Bronx, NY

@phillyanne

Philadelphia, PA

Contribute your pronunciation

Citations & Sources

■

Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary — glossary · 1938

submitted

■

Louis Armstrong, "Gate" nickname — jazz biography · 1930s

submitted

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