National ArchiveBlack’s Dictionary
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Entry · catalog no. 1019

sender

/ /
noun · Harlem, New York City ·
Verified
1.
A person or thing that thrills you — that sends you, that moves you emotionally. A performer, a song, or a lover who lifts you up.
That horn player is a real sender.
Origin & Attribution
Swing-era Harlem. From the verb send, to arouse joyful emotion, recorded in Cab Calloway's 1938 Hepster's Dictionary ("That sends me!"). A staple of Black musical language that the mainstream later softened into the generic "sensational."
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
Harlem, New York City ·
Spoken by
$SENDERThe Record · cultural traction
26 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
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
Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary — glossary · 1938
submitted
+ Cite a source
See also