Entry · catalog no. 4334
swerve
/ /swɜːrv/ /SWURV
interjection · Detroit · 2010s
✓ Verified
1.
A dismissal. Said to end a conversation, refuse an advance, or wave off something not worth the time — the image is a car changing lanes to avoid what is in front of it.
“Talking about he miss me. Swerve.”
2.
As an ad-lib, a boast: moving through, untouchable, not stopping for anybody.
“Swerve!”
Origin & Attribution
Detroit, out of car culture, carried nationally by Big Sean's ad-lib on Mercy in April 2012. Sean explained it himself to Complex in August 2012: he was swerving around, especially in the D-Town with whips everywhere in the city, and it was something my crew was saying a long time ago — I guess it's something I brought to the forefront to where everybody can hear it. There is an older Black usage of the same word in a different sense: get one's swerve on, tagged US Black in Green's with citations from 1997 to 2001, meaning variously to dance, to have sex, or to be in the swing of things. The dismissal sense enters the lexicographic record in 2014, two years behind the record, which is consistent with Mercy being the vector.
1997
Get one's swerve on documented in Black usage — a different sense of the same word
2012
Big Sean's ad-lib on Mercy, April; he names Detroit as the source in Complex that August
2014
The dismissal sense enters the slang record via UNC campus slang collection
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Midwest
Detroit · 2010s
Spoken by
Detroit, then hip-hop nationally
$SWERVEThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Faded14 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
55/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2012
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
@chitown
Chicago, IL
@detlex
Detroit, MI
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
"Mercy" — Kanye West feat. Big Sean, Pusha T and 2 Chainz, GOOD Music — song · April 2012
song
■
Big Sean interviewed by Brad Wete, Complex — interview · Aug 2012
researched
■
Green's Dictionary of Slang, swerve n., "get one's swerve on," US black, 1997-2001 — reference · 2001
researched
■
+ Cite a sourceUNC-CH Campus Slang, Spring 2014, ed. Connie Eble — scholarship · 2014
published
See also