Entry · catalog no. 1036

sickening

/ /ˈsɪk.ən.ɪŋ/ /SIK-uh-ning

adjective · Harlem ballroom · nationwide · 1980s

✓ Verified

So stunning it staggers you; good to the point of being almost too much to take. Among the highest compliments on the ballroom floor.

“That entrance was sickening — nobody in the room could follow it.”

Origin & Attribution

Ballroom slang from the Black and Latino LGBTQ houses, where the top praise was built from words that sound like insults. Revived widely through drag television, but the floor said it first.

1980s

High praise on the ballroom floor

2010s

Revived through drag television

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

Nationwide

Harlem ballroom · nationwide · 1980s

Spoken by

Black and Latino ballroom houses

$SICKENThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Rising

41 yrs

ahead of the mainstream

65/100

peak cultural energy

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

Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest

First used

1985

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

■

Paris Is Burning — documentary · 1990

submitted

■

Ball culture / drag terminology — reference

submitted

+ Cite a source