Entry · catalog no. 1048
killer-diller
/ /
noun · Harlem, New York ·
✓ Verified
1.
Something or someone thrilling, first-rate, a knockout. A jive superlative from the swing era.
“That new band down at the hall is a killer-diller.”
Origin & Attribution
Documented in bandleader Cab Calloway's "Hepster's Dictionary" (1938), the first published glossary of the jive spoken by Black musicians in Harlem, where it is glossed as a great thrill.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
Harlem, New York ·
Spoken by
$KILLERThe 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.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
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Memphis, TN
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Citations & Sources
■
+ Cite a sourceCab Calloway, "Hepster's Dictionary: Language of Jive" — glossary · 1938
submitted
See also