Entry · catalog no. 1061
Lindy Hop
/ /
noun · northeast ·
✓ 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.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
northeast ·
Spoken by
$LINDYHThe 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
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
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