Entry · catalog no. 7517
send
/ /sɛnd/ /SEND
verb · Harlem, New York · 1930s
✓ Verified
1.
To thrill; to arouse deep, joyful feeling. Music that sends you moves you clean out of yourself; the one who does it is a sender.
“That horn solo sends me, no lie.”
Origin & Attribution
Harlem jive of the 1930s, documented in Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary (1938) alongside its agent noun, sender. Sam Cooke carried the word to the top of the pop chart with You Send Me (1957), and the meaning rode into soul and rock'n'roll usage.
1938
Cab Calloway defines send — to arouse the emotions — in his Hepster's Dictionary
1957
Sam Cooke's You Send Me hits no. 1 on the pop chart
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Harlem, New York · 1930s
Spoken by
Harlem jazz world; later soul and pop audiences nationwide
$SENDThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Faded88 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
34/100
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.
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By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
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Memphis, TN
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Citations & Sources
■
Cab Calloway, Hepster's Dictionary: Language of Jive
1938
■
+ Cite a sourceSam Cooke, You Send Me (Keen)
1957
See also