Entry · catalog no. 7841
slide your jib
/ /slaɪd jər ˈdʒɪb/ /slyd yer JIB
phrase · Harlem, New York · 1930s
✓ Verified
1.
To talk freely; to let loose in conversation. The jib is the tongue — sliding it means letting it run.
“Pull up a chair and slide your jib — what happened at the dance last night?”
Origin & Attribution
Harlem's Black jazz world of the 1930s, documented by Cab Calloway in his Hepster's Dictionary (1938), the jive glossary compiled from the working speech of his musicians and their circles.
1938
Cab Calloway prints slide your jib in his Hepster's Dictionary
1944
Retained in the final New Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Harlem, New York · 1930s
Spoken by
Harlem jazz musicians and the hep set
$SLIDEYThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Historical88 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
14/100
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.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
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Citations & Sources
■
Cab Calloway, Hepster's Dictionary: Language of Jive
1938
■
+ Cite a sourceThe New Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary
1944
See also