Entry · catalog no. 8674
sis
/ — /pending
noun · nationwide · 2026
✓ Verified
1.
A term of address and endearment for a sister in the broad sense — a woman or close friend held as kin. Shortened from sistah. Carries warmth and solidarity, and a pointed edge when used to check somebody.
“Sis, you already know I got you.”
Origin & Attribution
Grew out of Black women's use of "sistah" and was carried and sharpened in Black queer and ballroom spaces into a wider term of kinship, well before it circulated as generic online address.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
nationwide · 2026
Spoken by
nationwide
$SISThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Rising0 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
12/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2026
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
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
+ Cite a sourceVice, "How Black Queers Made 'Sis' a Gender-Neutral Term of Endearment" — article · 2019
submitted
See also