Entry · catalog no. 8022
hater
/ /ˈheɪ.tɚ/ /HAY-ter
noun · Nationwide · 1990s
✓ Verified
1.
Someone who runs down another person's achievements or good fortune out of jealousy rather than honest criticism.
“Let the haters talk; the work speaks for itself.”
2.
In the compound 'player hater' (also 'playa hater'), one who resents a person who is doing well, especially in love or money.
“Quit playa hating and give him his credit.”
Origin & Attribution
The sense of a jealous detractor grew out of Black hip-hop vocabulary in the early 1990s, first as 'player hater' or 'playa hater' (a person resentful of a 'player,' a successful hustler or ladies' man) and then as plain 'hater.' Green's Dictionary of Slang files citations under 'player hate' from Lord Finesse, 'Actual Facts' (1992) and Mack 10, 'Gangster Poem' (1995), and prints print-media uses in The Source (Nov. 1998) and Hip-Hop Connection (Dec. 1998). The word is routinely mislabeled as Gen Z or social-media slang; it reached the pop mainstream through songs like Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off' (2014), after decades of use in Black communities.
1992
'Player hater' circulates in rap (Lord Finesse, 1992; Mack 10, 1995)
1998
Printed in The Source and Hip-Hop Connection as established slang
2014
Enters the pop mainstream ('Shake It Off')
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
Nationwide · 1990s
Spoken by
Black Americans, hip-hop artists and audiences
$HATERThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady22 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
90/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1992
in the culture
Mainstream crossover
2014
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
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Citations & Sources
■
Lord Finesse, "Actual Facts" (1992), as cited in Green's Dictionary of Slang, s.v. player
1992
■
Mack 10, "Gangster Poem" (1995), as cited in Green's Dictionary of Slang, s.v. player
1995
■
The Source (Nov. 1998), as quoted in Green's Dictionary of Slang
1998
■
+ Cite a sourceHip-Hop Connection (Dec. 1998), as quoted in Green's Dictionary of Slang
1998
See also