Entry · catalog no. 1077

trilly

/ /ˈtrɪl.i/ /TRIL-ee

verb · northeast · 1930s

✓ Verified

To leave, to head out, to make one's exit.

“It's getting late — I guess I'll trilly.”

Origin & Attribution

Recorded in Cab Calloway's "Hepster's Dictionary" (1938), the first dictionary published by an African American, which set down the jive vocabulary of Harlem's swing musicians.

1938

Recorded in Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary

Region of origin

West

Midwest

N.East

South

Nationwide

northeast · 1930s

Spoken by

Harlem swing musicians

$TRILLYThe Record · cultural traction

▲ Dormant

88 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

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.

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Citations & Sources

■

Cab Calloway, "Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary: Language of Jive" — dictionary · 1938

submitted

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