Entry · catalog no. 6206
stanch out
/ /stɑːntʃ aʊt/ /STAHNCH-owt
verb · Harlem, New York · 1940s
✓ Verified
1.
To set out; to get going; to make your move.
“Soon as the sun dropped, we stanched out for the avenue.”
Origin & Attribution
From Zora Neale Hurston''s 1942 Harlem glossary, where stanch is glossed to begin. In the fuller street sense it carried the flavor of setting off with purpose — stepping out into the night with somewhere to be.
1942
Recorded in Hurston''s Harlem glossary as to begin
1940s
Current in Harlem street speech
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Northeast
Harlem, New York · 1940s
Spoken by
Harlem, New York
$STANCHThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Dormant84 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
15/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1942
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.
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The Bronx, NY
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Philadelphia, PA
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