Entry · catalog no. 8409
high five
/ /ˈhaɪ ˈfaɪv/ /HY FYV
noun / verb · Los Angeles (Dodger Stadium) and Black American sporting culture · 1970s
✓ Verified
1.
A greeting or celebration in which two people raise a hand and slap palms overhead.
“He hit the shot and every one of us ran over for a high five.”
2.
To exchange that gesture with someone; also, figuratively, to congratulate.
“I high-fived him when he told me he got the job.”
Origin & Attribution
The gesture grew out of the Black American palm slap — giving skin, slapping five — that was already common in Black social life well before the 1970s. The famous first-recorded high five came on October 2, 1977, at Dodger Stadium, when Dusty Baker hit his 30th home run of the season and Glenn Burke, waiting on deck, raised his hand above his head and Baker slapped it. Both men were Black Dodgers, and Baker has long credited the moment to the two of them improvising on the spot. Other claimants exist, including a college basketball origin story, so the 1977 moment is best read as the best-documented early instance rather than the invention of the hand slap itself. Mainstream retellings that treat the gesture as born in a single ballpark moment leave out the Black skin-giving tradition it came out of.
1977
Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke exchange the widely credited first high five at Dodger Stadium
1980s
The gesture and term spread through basketball and baseball, then into general American speech
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Los Angeles (Dodger Stadium) and Black American sporting culture · 1970s
Spoken by
Black athletes first, then all of American sport and everyday life
$HIGHFIThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady49 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
1977
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
■
High five, Wikipedia (summarizing the Oct. 2, 1977 Baker–Burke moment and competing claims)
article
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Glenn Burke, Wikipedia
article
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+ Cite a sourceMeet the baseball player who invented the high five, Marketplace (2014)
article
See also