Entry · catalog no. 0700
main stem
/ /meɪn stɛm/ /mayn STEM
noun · Harlem · 1930s
✓ Verified
1.
The principal street of a district — the strip where the action is. In Harlem jive it meant the parade ground of Black social life, usually Seventh Avenue or 125th Street.
“Caught him struttin' down the main stem in a brand-new drape.”
Origin & Attribution
Older American street slang for a city's main artery, taken up and made at home in Harlem jive by the 1930s. Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary (1938) fixed it in print, glossing Harlem itself as 'the main stem.' The phrase is not a Black coinage, but its jive-era life on Harlem tongues is what kept it current.
1930s
Current in Harlem jive for the main drag
1938
Printed in Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Northeast
Harlem · 1930s
Spoken by
Harlem jazz and nightlife world
$MAINSTThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Faded88 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
55/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1938
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
@bxgriot
The Bronx, NY
@phillyanne
Philadelphia, PA
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See also