Entry · catalog no. 6956
salty
/ /ˈsɔːl.ti/ /SAWL-tee
adjective · Harlem / national · 1930s
✓ Verified
1.
Bitter, resentful, or irritated — especially over a loss or a slight one will not admit still stings.
“He's still salty about getting cut from the team.”
Origin & Attribution
Harlem jazz vernacular recorded in Cab Calloway's 1938 Hepster's Dictionary, where it already meant angry and ill-tempered — nearly a century before gaming and internet culture claimed the word as their own coinage.
1930s
Attested in Black and jazz-world speech meaning bitter or aggrieved
1990s
Carried into hip-hop usage
2010s
Adopted broadly in gaming and online culture
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Harlem / national · 1930s
Spoken by
Black English speakers; jazz-era roots
$SALTYThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady88 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
88/100
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
Recorded here
2026
point of first record
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
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See also