Entry · catalog no. 0912
mannish
/ /ˈmænɪʃ/ /MAN-ish
adj. · Southern Black communities (national) · early 1900s
✓ Verified
1.
Of a child, usually a boy: behaving as though grown, impudent toward adults, too forward for their age. A parent's word of warning, not praise.
“Boy, you getting mannish — sit down somewhere.”
Origin & Attribution
Long carried in Southern Black speech, where 'mannish' names a child — most often a boy — who has started acting grown before his time. The English word is old, but this particular sense, the fresh and precocious child, is the one kept alive in Black Southern households and documented in scholarship of African American English. A companion to the same tradition's 'smell yourself.'
early 1900s
Established in Southern Black home speech
20th c.
Carried nationwide through the Great Migration
present
Still in everyday family use
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
Southern Black communities (national) · early 1900s
Spoken by
Southern Black families; elders to children
$MANNISThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady126 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
1900
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
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
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Citations & Sources
■
Green, 'Dictionary of Slang' — 'mannish' (precocious, impudent child)
reference · cited
■
+ Cite a sourceSouthern Black family speech, oral attestation
oral history
See also