Entry · catalog no. 1072

jump salty

/ /dʒʌmp ˈsɔːl.ti/ /jump SAWL-tee

phrase · Harlem, New York · 1940s

✓ Verified

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.

1938

Root salty in Calloway

1942

Full phrase in Hurston's glossary

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

Nationwide

Harlem, New York · 1940s

Spoken by

Harlem speakers

$JUMPSAThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Dormant

84 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

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," The American Mercury — short story with glossary · 1942

submitted

■

Cab Calloway, Hepster's Dictionary — dictionary · 1938

submitted

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