Entry · catalog no. 1000
solid
/ /
adjective · Harlem / national ·
✓ Verified
1.
Excellent, dependable, settled — and, standing alone, an agreement: understood, done, say less.
“You'd do that for me? Solid.”
Origin & Attribution
Swing-era Harlem vernacular. Cab Calloway's 1938 glossary carries it as high praise, and Zora Neale Hurston recorded it in her 1942 Harlem slang glossary. It is still doing the same work in Black speech today.
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
Harlem / national ·
Spoken by
$SOLIDThe 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 sourceStory in Harlem Slang (glossary), Zora Neale Hurston — American Mercury · 1942
submitted
See also