Entry · catalog no. 1061
Lindy Hop
/ /ˈlɪn.di hɑːp/ /LIN-dee hop
noun · northeast · 1920s
✓ Verified
1.
A partnered swing dance built on an eight-count rhythm and the breakaway — the moment the partners let go and improvise alone before coming back together.
“They cleared the floor and did the Lindy Hop till the band gave out.”
Origin & Attribution
Harlem, 1928, out of the Savoy Ballroom and the dance marathons around it. George "Shorty" Snowden and his partner Mattie Purnell are credited with the breakaway that made it a distinct dance; the name nods to Charles Lindbergh's 1927 "hop" across the Atlantic. The dance was Black before it was American, and American before it was global — a fact that swing revivals have often left out.
1928
Born at the Savoy Ballroom
1930s
Swing-era national craze
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
northeast · 1920s
Spoken by
Harlem dancers at the Savoy Ballroom
$LINDYHThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady98 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
58/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1928
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
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Citations & Sources
■
Marshall and Jean Stearns — Jazz Dance: The Story of American Vernacular Dance — book · 1968
submitted
■
+ Cite a sourceManhattan Casino dance marathon, Harlem — documented event · 1928
submitted
See also