Entry · catalog no. 0345
gator-faced
/ /ˈɡeɪtər feɪst/ /GAY-ter-fayst
adjective · Harlem, New York City · 1940s
✓ Verified
1.
Long-faced and big-mouthed — one of the Harlem insult-portrait words, built for the dozens and for description alike.
“That gator-faced joker at the bar been talking all night and said nothing yet.”
Origin & Attribution
Harlem, 1930s–40s. Zora Neale Hurston recorded it in the glossary to "Story in Harlem Slang" (American Mercury, 1942), her field-accurate catalog of Harlemese. Green's Dictionary of Slang carries it as U.S. Black slang for a long face with a large mouth.
1942
Recorded in Hurston's glossary to Story in Harlem Slang
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Harlem, New York City · 1940s
Spoken by
Harlem residents; the dozens circuit
$GATORFThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Dormant84 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
10/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1942
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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Citations & Sources
■
Zora Neale Hurston, Story in Harlem Slang, American Mercury
1942
■
+ Cite a sourceGreen's Dictionary of Slang, gator entries
2010
See also