Entry · catalog no. 1072
jump salty
/ /
phrase · Harlem, New York ·
✓ Verified
1.
To get angry; to turn sour on someone, often suddenly and out of proportion.
“Don't jump salty with me, I only told you what she said.”
Origin & Attribution
In Zora Neale Hurston's 1942 Harlem slang glossary as "get angry." Calloway's 1938 dictionary carries the root: salty, "angry, ill-tempered." The full phrase faded; salty alone survives in everyday Black speech and later spread far beyond it.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
Harlem, New York ·
Spoken by
$JUMPSAThe Record · cultural traction
▲ 26 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
60/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
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," The American Mercury — short story with glossary · 1942
submitted
■
+ Cite a sourceCab Calloway, Hepster's Dictionary — dictionary · 1938
submitted
See also