Entry · catalog no. 6214

opulence

/ /ˈɑːpjələns/ /AH-pyuh-lens

noun · Harlem / ballroom · 1980s

✓ Verified

In ballroom, luxuriousness as a whole way of being — owning everything, wanting for nothing.

“O-P-U-L-E-N-C-E — opulence. You own everything.”

Origin & Attribution

A standard English word made into a ballroom watchword by emcee Junior LaBeija in Paris Is Burning (1990), spelled out over the floor: Opulence. You own everything. In the Black and Latino ballroom houses it named a category and an attitude — performing the wealth and ease a racist, classist world withheld. Commentary, LaBeija knew, on a class he was shut out of.

1980s

A ballroom category and watchword in the New York houses

1990

Junior LaBeija''s Opulence. You own everything in Paris Is Burning

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

The Northeast

Harlem / ballroom · 1980s

Spoken by

ballroom houses, New York

$OPULENThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Steady

36 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

50/100

peak cultural energy

Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1990

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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Citations & Sources

■

Paris Is Burning (dir. Jennie Livingston) — documentary film · 1990

film

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