Entry · catalog no. 6828

tea

/ — /pending

noun · South / Black gay and drag communities · 2026

✓ Verified

The truth — one's own, or somebody else's making the rounds. Spilled, sipped, or served, depending on who is telling it.

“Sit down, I've got tea from the family reunion.”

Origin & Attribution

Black gay and drag communities of the South, where "T" stood for truth — one's own truth or the hidden kind that becomes gossip. One of the earliest print records is The Lady Chablis in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994): her T, her thing, her business. Drag Race carried it mainstream; the source was Black and Southern.

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

The South

South / Black gay and drag communities · 2026

Spoken by

South / Black gay and drag communities

$TEAThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Rising

0 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

@nolakid

New Orleans, LA

@htxdri

Houston, TX

Contribute your pronunciation

Citations & Sources

■

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt — book · 1994

submitted

■

Hiding My Candy, The Lady Chablis — autobiography · 1997

submitted

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