Entry · catalog no. 4312
mean mug
/ /miːn mʌɡ/ /meen MUG
verb · noun · nationwide · 2000s
✓ Verified
1.
To fix someone with a hard, hostile stare — narrowed eyes, set jaw, no warmth — meant to intimidate or show contempt. As a noun, the look itself. From "mug," old slang for the face.
“He mean mugged me across the room like I owed him something.”
Origin & Attribution
African American Vernacular English, carried into wide use by hip-hop through the 1990s and 2000s, when artists from Tupac to Nas made the mean mug part of the music's stance. Built on "mug" for face, slang since the 1700s, and "mean" for hostile.
1990s
Common in AAVE and hip-hop imagery
2000s
Standard slang for a hostile stare
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
nationwide · 2000s
Spoken by
Black American and hip-hop speakers
$MEANMUThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady31 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
First used
1995
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
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Dictionary.com slang, "mean-mugging"
2000s
■
+ Cite a sourceWest Coast and East Coast hip-hop usage (Tupac, Nas era)
1990s
See also