Entry · catalog no. 1036
sickening
/ /
adjective · Harlem ballroom · nationwide ·
✓ Verified
1.
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.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
Harlem ballroom · nationwide ·
Spoken by
$SICKENThe 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
■
Paris Is Burning — documentary · 1990
submitted
■
+ Cite a sourceBall culture / drag terminology — reference
submitted
See also