-izzle

suffix · Philadelphia schoolyards (the -iz- infix, recorded 1980); East Oakland and Vallejo, California (the -eezy and -izzle suffix, mid-1990s); Long Beach and Los Angeles (national popularization, 2000–2004)

'nem

noun · south

40 acres and a mule

noun phrase · Sea Islands / South-wide

6 7

interjection · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Kensington)

ace boon coon

noun · Chicago and New York first in the print record, then Los Angeles and Black communities nationally

Afro

noun · United States, nationwide; the naming and organizing that produced it are traceable to Harlem and to Black college and arts circles

Afrofuturism

noun · United States (term coined 1993)

aight

int. · national

air out

verb · Harlem, New York

all up in the Kool-Aid

phrase · No single city — nationwide, with deep Southern and Midwestern Black currency

alligator

noun · Harlem

and I oop

interjection · nationwide

arabber

noun · Baltimore — West and East Baltimore stables

ard

interjection · Philadelphia / Baltimore

armor bearer

n. · national; Pentecostal and Charismatic churches

Armstrongs

noun · New York and national jazz scene

around the way

phrase · NYC / national

ashy

adjective · national

astorperious

adjective · Harlem, New York

ATLien

noun · Atlanta, Georgia

Aunt Hagar's children

noun phrase · Black Protestant congregations of the South and Upper South, carried nationally by migration

Aunt Jemima

noun · Black American, nationwide

axe

noun · national

b-boy

noun · The Bronx, New York

baby daddy

noun · South / national

baby dolls

noun · New Orleans, Louisiana

baby hair

noun · Black America, nationwide

baby mama

noun · United States, nationwide; with a parallel Caribbean term in Jamaica and the Jamaican diaspora

back door man

n. · Mississippi Delta and Chicago

back-cap

noun · New York City; earlier general American use

bad hair

noun phrase · Nationwide

bad mama jama

noun phrase · national

bad mouth

verb · south

bad nigger

noun · American South — Mississippi Valley, St. Louis, south Alabama

bae

noun · nationwide

ballin' the jack

verb phrase; also noun (the dance) · U.S. South (Gulf and Atlantic ports), then national

Baltimore club

proper noun · Baltimore, Maryland — Cherry Hill, Sandtown, East and West Baltimore; the Paradox and Hammerjacks; 92Q radio

bama

noun · Washington, D.C.

bammer

noun · San Francisco Bay Area, originating in Hunters Point, San Francisco

banjee

adjective · New York City (ballroom)

banjo

noun · West Africa to the plantation South

bankhead bounce

n. · Bankhead, Atlanta

Bantu knots

noun · Southern Africa in origin; Black America for the English name

barbecue

n. · Harlem, New York

barrelhouse

noun · Southern United States

based

adjective · Bay Area, West

basic

adjective · Black internet and comedy

battle royal

noun · American South / nationwide

battle-hammed

adjective · Black American, chiefly Southern; recorded in colonial newspapers, in country blues, and in Hurston's Harlem glossary

be

auxiliary · nationwide

Beale Street

noun · Memphis, Tennessee

beat

adjective · Harlem ballroom · nationwide

beat it out

verb phrase · Harlem, New York

beat to the socks

adjective phrase · Harlem, New York City, and the Black urban circuit

beat up the chops

phrase · northeast

beat ya feet

verb · Washington, DC

beatbox

noun, verb · New York City — principally Brooklyn, Harlem and the Bronx

bebop

noun · Harlem — Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House — with Kansas City and Southwest territory-band input

Becky

noun · National

been knew

phrase · national

Beluthahatchie

noun (place name) · Florida and the Deep South; published from Harlem

benne

noun · Gullah Geechee Lowcountry

bffr

initialism, interjection · United States

big back

noun · nationwide (internet)

big chief

noun · New Orleans, Louisiana — Seventh Ward, Tremé, Central City, Sixth and Ninth Wards; also carried by post-Katrina diaspora in Houston and Atlanta

big chop

noun phrase · United States, nationwide, and internationally wherever the anglophone Black natural hair community reaches

big house

noun · Plantation South

big mad

adjective · nationwide

big mama

n. · Black American family tradition

biggety

adjective · Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas — and carried north with the Great Migration

bird

noun · Black America, nationwide

biting

verb · New York City

Black Belt

noun · Central Alabama and northeast Mississippi; Chicago's South Side

black bottom

noun · Nashville, Tennessee

black card

noun · national

black cat bone

noun · the Black South, with Sea Islands and Mississippi Delta variants

Black Girl Magic

phrase · Washington, DC; spread nationwide through Black Twitter, then through Essence, BET and national press

Black is beautiful

phrase · Harlem, New York City; nationwide by the late 1960s

Black Power

phrase · Greenwood, Mississippi for the flashpoint; Lowndes County, Alabama for the organizing; Oakland and Harlem for the institutions

Black Twitter

proper noun · Nationwide, with heavy weight in the South (Atlanta, Houston, the Carolinas), plus New York, Chicago, DC and the Bay; diasporic ties to South Africa, Nigeria, the UK and the Caribbean

Black Wall Street

proper noun · Greenwood District, Tulsa, Oklahoma; extended nationally

blackfishing

noun · internet / nationwide

blaxploitation

noun · Los Angeles and New York (1972)

blicky

noun · Brooklyn (Flatbush, East New York, Canarsie), Queens, the Bronx; Newark and Paterson; North and West Philadelphia; Detroit

blip

noun · Harlem, New York City

blow your top

verb · Harlem, New York City

blow your wig

phrase · Harlem, New York

blue vein society

noun · Northern and Upper South cities; Chesnutt's certain Northern city is generally read as Cleveland

body

noun · New York City — Harlem ballroom; now national

bonnet

noun · Nationwide; rooted in Black households across the South and the Great Migration cities

boo

noun · South / nationwide

boo'd up

phrase · Nationwide

boogaloo

noun · Chicago / Spanish Harlem

boogie

verb · Southern · nationwide

Boogie Down

n. · The Bronx, New York City

boogie-woogie

noun · Southern juke joints; Chicago

bool

adjective · Los Angeles / Compton, California

boom bap

noun · The Bronx and New York City

boosie fade

noun · Baton Rouge / South

boots

adverb · northeast

bootylicious

adjective · Los Angeles and Houston (1990s to 2001)

bop

noun · nationwide

bougie

adjective · Nationwide

boujee

adjective · National

boul

noun · Philadelphia

Boule

noun · Philadelphia, spreading nationwide

bounce

noun · New Orleans

bounce beat

noun · Washington, D.C. and Prince George's County, Maryland

box braids

noun · Harlem and Black shops nationwide; mainstreamed out of Los Angeles by film

boy, bye

interjection · Black America, nationwide

Br'er Rabbit

proper noun · Coastal Georgia and the South Carolina Lowcountry

breakbeat

noun · The Bronx, New York (1973)

breaking

noun · New York City

bree

n. · Harlem, New York City

brick

adjective · northeast

bring down

noun · verb · Harlem, New York City

bring it

phrase · Ballroom scene, New York City

broccoli

noun · Vallejo and the Bay Area

brolic

adjective · northeast

Bronzeville

noun · Chicago, Illinois

bruh

noun · south

buck dance

noun · Plantation South, later the NC Piedmont

buck jumping

verb · New Orleans, Louisiana

buckra

n. · Gullah-Geechee, SC/GA Lowcountry

Bud Billiken

proper noun · Chicago, Illinois

buffet flat

noun · Chicago, Detroit and Harlem

buffs

noun (plural) · Detroit, Michigan

bul

noun · Philadelphia

bull skating

noun · Harlem, New York

bull's wool

noun · Harlem, New York City; earlier across the American hobo, prison, and underworld circuits

bum rush

verb · New York City / Long Island

buppie

noun · National, urban centers

burn, baby, burn

phrase · Los Angeles, California (1965)

buss down

noun · South / national

bust your conk

verb phrase · Harlem, New York

buster

noun · West Coast (California)

butch queen

n. · Harlem ballroom scene, New York

butt sprung

adjective · Harlem as recorded; Black American speech broadly

buzzard lope

noun · Georgia Sea Islands and the Black South

by any means necessary

phrase · Harlem, New York (1964)

bye Felicia

phrase · South Central Los Angeles origin; nationwide in Black American speech

cakewalk

noun · Southern plantations · nationwide

call and response

noun · The Sea Islands and the plantation South, then everywhere Black people sing

canary

noun · northeast

cancel

verb · Nationwide

candy lady

noun · Black neighborhoods nationwide; documented in Chicago, Memphis, and across the South

candy paint

noun · Houston, Texas

cap

verb · nationwide

Captain Save-a-Hoe

noun · Vallejo and the Bay Area, California

carryout

noun · Washington, D.C. and the DMV

cat

noun · Harlem / nationwide

catch a fade

phrase · Rooted in Black craps and street speech nationally; the compound documented in Southern California

catch the Holy Ghost

phrase · Black church, South and nationwide

category is

phrase (emcee call) · Harlem, New York City

caught in 4K

phrase · nationwide (internet)

Cha Cha Slide

noun · South Side, Chicago, Illinois

cheddar

noun · nationwide

cheese

noun · American cities coast to coast; carried in the modern era by New York, Bay Area and Southern rap

chicken box

noun · Baltimore, Maryland

Chicken Noodle Soup

noun · Harlem, NYC

chickenhead

noun · Northeast / Memphis

chile

interjection · South

chime

n. · Harlem, New York City

Chiraq

proper noun · Chicago — the South and West Sides

chirp

noun · Jazz circuit / nationwide

chitlin circuit

noun · nationwide

chitlins

noun · the Deep South and Upper South

Chocolate City

noun · Washington, D.C. — coined on Black AM radio there in the early 1970s, then applied to majority-Black cities generally

choppa

noun · New Orleans; Southern United States

chopped

adjective · northeast

chopped and screwed

idiom · phrase · Houston

chopped cheese

noun · East Harlem, New York City

chops

noun · Black jazz circles nationally — New Orleans, Kansas City, Chicago, New York

church fan

noun · Black churches, concentrated in the South and in Migration congregations

church hat

noun · Black churches across the South — Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, Mississippi, Virginia — and in Chicago, Detroit, Harlem, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.

church mother

noun · Black congregations nationwide; densest in the South and in Great Migration destinations

church nurse

n. · Memphis and the South; national

cipher

noun · Northeast — New York City

clapback

noun · Nationwide

clean

adjective · Nationwide

coal scuttle blonde

noun · US South and Harlem

code-switching

noun · nationwide

cold in hand

phrase · Nationwide

collar a nod

phrase · Harlem, New York

colorism

noun · Eatonton, Georgia; the practice named is nationwide and older than the word

colorstruck

adjective · Black American, nationwide; documented in Southern Black speech and in Harlem and Chicago's Bronzeville by the 1920s and 1930s

come

auxiliary · nationwide

come correct

verb phrase · Black American; NYC and the South

comping

verb · noun · Jazz bandstands — Harlem, 52nd Street, and beyond

Congo Square

proper noun · New Orleans, Louisiana

conjure

noun, verb · The Black South; densest documentation along the Gulf coast and in New Orleans, with strong records in the Carolinas and Virginia

conk

noun · Nationwide

cool

adjective · Nationwide — Kansas City / New York jazz origins

cooling board

noun · The rural South, especially the Mississippi Delta and Georgia; carried north by migration and by records

coon

noun · United States

cooter

n. · American South (Gullah/African retention)

cop

verb · Harlem's jazz world outward into Black speech everywhere

copacetic

adjective · south

copasetic

adjective · south

cornball

noun · nationwide

CP time

noun · Black American, nationwide; first recorded in the Black press in Chicago and current everywhere within a decade

crank

noun · Washington, DC

creamy crack

noun · nationwide

Crip walk

noun; also verb, to C-walk · South Central and Compton, Los Angeles; nationwide by video from about 2000

crumb crushers

noun · Harlem / jazz circuit

cubby

noun · Harlem, New York City — Lenox Avenue, the Cotton Club circuit, and the touring band world that carried the dictionary nationwide

cuffing season

phrase · Nationwide

cunty

adjective · Northeast — New York City ballroom scene

Cupid Shuffle

noun · Lafayette, Louisiana; national within a year

curve

verb · Harlem and New York Black speech, then nationwide

cut a rug

verb · Harlem, New York; South Side, Chicago

cut eye

noun; verb phrase ('to cut one's eyes at') · Black American South and urban North; Caribbean parallel usage

cut out

verb · Harlem, New York; nationwide

cutting contest

noun · Harlem, New York

da butt

noun · Washington, DC go-go scene; national via 'School Daze'

dab

noun / verb · Atlanta, Georgia; spread nationwide

daddy-o

noun · Harlem / nationwide

dashiki

noun · Harlem, New York (1967)

dat way

phrase · Atlanta, Georgia

day clean

noun; also adverbial ('fo' day clean') · South Carolina and Georgia Sea Islands and Lowcountry

day one

noun · northeast

day work

noun · No single city — nationwide; the Bronx hiring corners became the emblem

dead presidents

noun · Harlem, New York

deadass

adverb · New York City

def

adjective · Northeast — New York City

demon time

noun · Internet / national

demure

adjective · nationwide

deuce and a quarter

noun phrase · Urban Black America; documented Florida and Chicago in the earliest citations

deuce of haircuts

phrase · Harlem, New York

devotion

noun · The rural Black South, carried north in the Great Migration

dicty

adjective · Harlem / urban North

diddy bop

verb · Northern Black cities — New York and Chicago

diddy-wah-diddy

noun · south

dig

verb · Harlem / national

digital blackface

noun · internet / nationwide

dime

noun · nationwide; New York

dime note

noun · Harlem, New York City

dims and brights

noun phrase (plural) · Harlem and the Black touring-musician circuit

Dirty South

noun · East Point, Atlanta, Georgia

diss

verb, noun · New York City — Harlem, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens

DMV

proper noun · Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia

do-rag

noun · nationwide

dog

verb · nationwide

dommy

n. · Harlem, New York City

done

auxiliary · South; nationwide

donk

noun · Miami, Florida

doo-wop

noun · Harlem and the Bronx, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, and other Northern cities

doobie

noun · New York, Boston, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Miami

dope

adjective · Northeast — New York City, then nationwide

dope boy

noun · Atlanta; the broader U.S. South

double consciousness

noun phrase · Atlanta and Massachusetts; read nationwide

Double Dutch

noun · Harlem, the Bronx, Brooklyn and the Lower East Side; Philadelphia; Chicago South Side; now international, with strong competitive scenes in Japan and France

down bad

adjective · national

down home

adjective, noun · The Mississippi Delta, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, Louisiana, and East Texas — as spoken of from Chicago, Detroit, Harlem, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Oakland, and Los Angeles

down low

noun / adjective phrase · United States, Black communities (late 20th century)

Dr. Watts

noun · African American Missionary Baptist and Methodist congregations; concentrated in the rural and small-town South and carried north by migration

Draco

proper noun · Atlanta and the broader South; Detroit; nationwide

drag

v. · Harlem, New York City; national

drag ball

noun · Harlem, New York City

drank

noun · south

drape shape

noun · Harlem, New York

draped down

phrase · Harlem, New York

draped up

adjective · Houston, Texas

drawlin

verb · Philadelphia, Northeast

dream book

noun · Black urban North — Harlem, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia; documented in New York from 1872

drill

noun · Midwest — Chicago, Illinois

drip

noun · Houston's South Side; the Screwed Up Click

dropping science

verb phrase · New York — Long Island and the five boroughs

dry snitch

verb · nationwide

dubs

noun · West Coast / South

duckwalk

noun · Harlem ballroom

dun

noun · Queens, New York

Dungeon Family

noun · Atlanta, Georgia (East Point)

durag

noun · First printed in the industrial Midwest — Detroit, Akron, Dayton — for a practice already national

dusties

noun (plural) · Chicago, Illinois

dusty butt

noun · Harlem / nationwide

eagle rock

noun; also verb (to eagle rock) · Southern and Midwestern Black communities (Kansas City association), then national

early black

noun · Harlem / jazz circuit

early bright

noun · Harlem / jazz circuit

Easter speech

n. · the South; national

easy rider

noun · Southern United States

Ebonics

noun · St. Louis, Missouri

eight-rock

noun · Mississippi and the Deep South, then Harlem and Northern cities

elbows

noun (plural) · Houston, Texas — the South Side, Sunnyside and Third Ward

every shut eye ain't sleep

phrase · the South and the Migration cities

evil

adjective · U.S. South, carried north to Kansas City, Chicago and Harlem

Exoduster

noun · Kansas / Great Plains

extra

adjective · nationwide

face

noun · Harlem ballroom circuit

face card

noun · national / internet

facts

interjection · nationwide

fall out

verb · nationwide

fanum tax

noun · nationwide

fast-tail

adjective · The South

fax, no printer

phrase · United States

feenin

v. · national

femme queen

n. · Harlem ballroom scene, New York

fetti

noun · Bay Area

field holler

noun · Southern United States

field Negro

noun · Nationwide

fifth quarter

noun · SWAC schools, Louisiana and Mississippi; HBCUs nationally

fight the power

verb phrase · Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn (1989); earlier Isley Brothers (1975)

final

v. · Harlem, New York

finesse

verb · nationwide

finger waves

noun · originally general salon practice; sustained and revived in Black shops nationwide

first lady

n. · Black church tradition (South & East Coast)

fish fry

n. · national; Southern in origin

fishy

adjective · northeast

flag boy

noun · New Orleans

flava

noun · Nationwide (hip-hop)

flex

verb · Nationwide

flossin

verb · Black Los Angeles first, in the early 1990s; national through hip-hop by the late 1990s, with New Orleans pushing the money sense hardest

fly

adjective · Nationwide — Chicago / New York

foenem

noun · Chicago, Illinois

footwork

noun · Chicago

for the culture

phrase · United States, nationwide; Atlanta and Black social media as amplifiers

foxy

adjective · Black urban speech; Harlem's press and the R&B circuit carried it

frail eel

noun · Harlem

frantic

adjective · Harlem, NYC

fraughty issue

noun · Harlem, New York

Freaknik

proper noun · Atlanta, Georgia — the Atlanta University Center, Piedmont Park, John A. White Park, Cascade Road, Lenox Square; later Memorial Drive in DeKalb County

Free Breakfast for School Children

proper noun · Oakland, California

freebie

noun · Harlem

freeby

noun · Harlem

fresh to death

adjective · U.S. Black urban communities, New York-rooted

frisking the whiskers

phrase · Harlem / nationwide

frolic pad

noun · Harlem, New York

from the git-go

phrase · nationwide

frontin

verb · New York City; nationwide

fronting

verb · New York City; nationwide

Fulani braids

noun · West Africa and the Black diaspora; Black American salons

funk

noun · Georgia and the Deep South

funky

adjective · Harlem · nationwide

funky butt

noun · New Orleans, Louisiana

fye

adjective · US South

G-funk

noun · Pomona and Compton, California

gabriel

noun · Harlem, New York City

gage

noun · Jazz centers (New Orleans, Chicago, New York)

gammin'

adjective · Harlem, New York City

gang gang

interjection · midwest

gangsta

noun / adjective · Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York (1980s)

gangsta walk

noun · south

gank

verb · West Coast (California)

gasser

n. · Harlem, New York

gate

noun · Harlem, New York City

gator-faced

adjective · Harlem, New York City

gators

noun (plural) · Nationwide; strongholds in the South and Midwest

geechee

noun · SC / GA / FL Lowcountry

geeked

adjective · DMV, nationwide

Georgia skin

noun · Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana — turpentine camps, sawmill and levee camps and jooks; later Harlem, Chicago, Philadelphia and Southern prison farms

get buck

verb · Memphis

get down

verb phrase · Nationwide

get happy

phrase · Nationwide (Black church)

ghetto bird

n. · South Central Los Angeles

ghost ride the whip

phrase · Bay Area, California

gig

noun · Jazz circuit / nationwide

gimme some skin

phrase · interjection · northeast

Ginny Gall

noun · Harlem, New York City; Black South

give someone their flowers

phrase · The Black press and the Black church, national

give the drummer some

phrase · Black touring revue and funk bandstand tradition

glazing

verb · nationwide (internet)

glizzy

noun · DMV

glow up

phrase · Chicago's South Side, out of the drill scene

go dumb

phrase · Bay Area, California

go stupid

phrase · Bay Area, California

go-go

noun · Washington, D.C. / DMV

God body

noun · Harlem — the Nation of Gods and Earths

God don't like ugly

phrase · Black Southern church and family speech; nationwide after the Great Migration

goober

n. · American South (Gullah/African retention)

good foot

noun · nationwide

good hair

phrase · Nationwide

goofer dust

noun · Deep South

goofy

adjective · Chicago's South and West Sides as the documented center; general Black American usage nationally

gospel

noun · Chicago

got your boots on

phrase · Harlem, New York

grand rising

phrase · interjection · Nationwide; strongest in spiritual and conscious communities

gray boy

noun · national

grease

verb · Black urban and jazz-circuit speech; later documented in prison and in the Northern Black cities

grill

noun · Brooklyn / South

grillz

noun · New York City (origin); Houston, Atlanta and the wider Hip-Hop South (popularization)

grimy

adjective · northeast

grip

noun · San Francisco Bay Area

grippin grain

idiom · phrase · south

gris-gris

noun, verb · Black New Orleans and Louisiana; from Mande-speaking West Africa by way of the Atlantic slave trade

groovy

adjective · nationwide

grown

adjective · The South

grown and sexy

adjective phrase · United States, nationwide, in Black urban nightlife markets; the earliest verified print use is from Tallahassee, Florida

guap

noun · nationwide

Gullah

noun · Sea Islands, SC & GA

gully

adjective · northeast

gum beater

noun · Harlem

gumbo

noun · Louisiana

gumbo ya-ya

noun · Louisiana bayou country and New Orleans

gutbucket

adjective · south

gworl

noun · South / internet

hack

noun · Baltimore, Maryland

half-smoke

noun · Washington, D.C.

hambone

noun, verb · Black American, Southern in root and national in play; children's games, street performance, and the Sea Island tradition

hamfat

noun · New Orleans and Chicago jazz circles; carried along the touring and recording circuit

hand dancing

noun · Washington, DC

handkerchief head

noun · nationwide

hard

adjective · Harlem — the swing and jive circuit

hard head

phrase · Nationwide

Harlem shake

n. · Harlem, New York City

hater

noun · Nationwide

have a ball

phrase · Southern and urban blues circuit

HBCU

noun · The South and border states — Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C.; plus Pennsylvania and Ohio for the oldest institutions

he's him

phrase · No single city — Black sports talk and rap, nationwide

head arrangement

noun · Kansas City, Missouri, and the Southwest territory band circuit

hella

adverb · Bay Area / Oakland

hep

adjective · Harlem · nationwide

hep cat

noun · northeast

hi-de-ho

interjection · Harlem, New York

hide-beater

noun · Harlem and the Black press circuit; New York and Pittsburgh, carried nationally by Black weeklies and the touring band trade

high top fade

noun · New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

high yellow

adjective · Nationwide — Southern and Harlem usage

highkey

adverb · Nationwide

hincty

adjective · Harlem / South

hip

adjective · Harlem / national

hits different

phrase · Nationwide

ho

noun · Nationwide; carried by Black Southern and urban speech

hoe

noun · Nationwide; carried by Black Southern and urban speech

hoecake

noun · US South

hog maws

noun · American South, especially the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee; carried to Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia and New York

holla

verb · U.S. Black communities, Southern-rooted

home training

phrase · No single city — nationwide

home-cooking

n. · Harlem and the Black press

homeboy

noun · the Black South, then the Migration cities

homegoing

noun · American South, then Black communities nationwide

honky

noun · Nationwide

hoochie

noun · Miami and the hip-hop South

hood rich

adj. · New Orleans; the Black South

hoodoo

noun · US South

hoppin' John

noun · South Carolina Lowcountry

hot boy

noun · Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana

hot comb

noun · nationwide

hot foot powder

noun · Deep South and the Mississippi Delta, carried north to Chicago and Detroit with the Great Migration

hot girl summer

noun · Houston, Texas

hotep

noun · United States

house

noun · Harlem, New York; ballroom

house father

n. · Harlem and New York City ballroom

house Negro

phrase · Plantation South for the literal sense; Detroit and East Lansing, Michigan for the political sense

hunty

noun · New York / ballroom

hush harbor

noun · the South

huzz

noun · New York City; streaming culture

hype

noun, verb · Harlem and the Black press; national from the late 1960s

hyphy

adjective · Bay Area

I Am a Man

phrase · Memphis, Tennessee

I said what I said

phrase · Atlanta, Georgia; nationwide by way of television and social media

I'm cracking but I'm facking

phrase · Harlem, New York

icky

noun · Harlem / jazz circuit

icon

noun · Harlem and New York ballroom, then nationwide

igg

verb · Harlem, New York

ill

adjective · New York City

in the cut

phrase · nationwide

in the groove

phrase · northeast

in the life

phrase · Nationwide

inky dink

noun · U.S. South and the urban Black North — Harlem, Chicago

intersectionality

noun · Los Angeles and New York legal academy; carried nationwide and then worldwide

ion

phrase · Nationwide; written form born online

it's giving

phrase · New York ballroom / nationwide

it's the ___ for me

idiom · phrase · Nationwide

J-setting

noun, verb · Jackson, Mississippi and HBCU campuses across the Deep South; club and team scenes in Atlanta, Houston, Memphis and Jackson

jack

verb · West — Los Angeles, then nationwide

Jack and Jill

noun · Philadelphia / nationwide

jackleg

noun · the South

jakes

noun · New York City — Queens, Brooklyn, Harlem

jam

verb · northeast

jawn

noun · Philadelphia

jazz

n. · New Orleans, Louisiana

jazz funeral

noun · New Orleans, Louisiana

jeff

noun, verb · Black American; Harlem and Chicago jive of the 1940s, later general Black speech and Black prison vernacular

jelly

noun · Harlem, New York City

Jersey club

noun · Newark, New Jersey

jheri curl

noun · nationwide

Jim Crow

noun · Northern stages first; the system it named was concentrated in the American South

jitney

noun · Pittsburgh (Hill District), Pennsylvania

jitterbug

noun · Harlem

jive

noun · Harlem / nationwide

jive turkey

noun · Urban North

jockamo

noun · New Orleans, Louisiana

Jody

noun · South / national

joe

noun · midwest

John Henry

proper noun · Summers County, West Virginia (contested: Lewis Tunnel, Virginia)

John the Conqueror

noun · Black South, with the densest documentation in New Orleans and the Gulf; carried north by the Great Migration and by the blues

jones

noun · nationwide

joning

verb · Washington, D.C. / DMV

jont

noun · DMV

jookin

verb · Memphis

juice

noun · northeast

juke

verb · Sea Islands / South

juke joint

noun · Deep South

jukebox

n. · Gullah/Geechee coast; the South

July jam

noun · Harlem

jump salty

phrase · Harlem, New York

jumping the broom

phrase · Plantation South — Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana; now Black weddings nationwide

Juneteenth

noun · Black Texan — Galveston and Houston first, carried out of Texas by migration and now observed nationwide

junt

noun · Memphis

juug

v. · Atlanta, Georgia

jux

verb · New York City

keep it real

phrase · Nationwide

kick

noun · northeast

kick it

idiom · phrase · nationwide

kick the gong around

phrase · northeast

kill me

verb phrase · Harlem, New York City

killer-diller

noun · Harlem, New York

kitchen

noun · Nationwide

kitchen mechanic

noun · Harlem, New York

knock me a kiss

phrase · Harlem / national jump-blues circuit

knock yourself out

phrase · Harlem, New York

Kool-Aid pickle

noun · Mississippi Delta

krump

noun · South Los Angeles

kumbaya

noun · Georgia and Carolina Sea Islands

Kwanzaa

proper noun · Los Angeles (Black Los Angeles, post-Watts); now nationwide, plus Canada, the Caribbean and Black Britain

lace front

noun · Black America, nationwide; salon and ballroom circuits

lackin

verb, adjective · Chicago drill — South and West Sides; carried outward to Detroit, Brooklyn, and UK drill, then into general internet speech

lake trout

noun · Baltimore, Maryland

lane

noun · Harlem, New York City

latch on

v. · Harlem, New York

lay dead

verb · Harlem and Black urban America; earlier general underworld use

lay some iron

phrase · northeast

lay your racket

verb phrase · Harlem, New York

lead sheet

noun · Harlem and the Black swing-band circuit

lean

noun · South — Houston, Texas

left no crumbs

phrase · Nationwide

legendary

adj. · Ballroom scene, New York City

lemon pepper wet

phrase · Atlanta, Georgia

licks

noun · Harlem, New York City; jazz circuit

lifting as we climb

phrase · National; founded in Washington, DC

lightly, slightly and politely

phr. · Harlem, New York City

lil mama

noun · New Orleans and the Deep South; national

lily whites

noun · Harlem / jazz circuit

Lindy Hop

noun · northeast

lock in

verb · phrase · Black internet, campus and locker-room speech; no single city of origin

loosies

noun · New York City (Harlem, the South Bronx, Bed-Stuy, Staten Island), Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore; Black and immigrant neighborhoods nationally

lor

adjective; name prefix · Baltimore, Maryland

loud

n. · Atlanta, Georgia

loud and wrong

phrase · nationwide; heavily amplified by Black Twitter

loud-talking

verb · national

lowkey

adverb · Nationwide

lurkin

v. · Chicago drill

mad

adverb · New York City

Magic City Monday

noun · Atlanta, Georgia

main on the hitch

noun · Harlem, New York City

main queen

noun · Harlem and the Pittsburgh–New York swing circuit

main stem

noun · Harlem

make a way out of no way

phrase · Black Baptist, Methodist, and Pentecostal congregations across the Deep South and the Great Migration cities; documented in Montgomery, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia

mammy

noun · Southern United States

mannish

adj. · Southern Black communities (national)

mash

verb · south

mash me a fin

phr. · Harlem, New York City

masking Indian

verb phrase · New Orleans — especially the Seventh Ward, Treme, Central City and Uptown

MC

noun · New York City

mean mug

verb · noun · nationwide

mellow

noun · Harlem

melted out

adjective · Harlem, NYC

mess

noun · Southern Black communities, carried north to Chicago and Harlem

mezz

n. · Harlem, New York City

Miami bass

noun · Liberty City and Miami, Florida

mid

adjective · American cannabis-market vocabulary; no single city of origin can be documented

mild sauce

noun · Chicago, Illinois — South and West Sides

Milly Rock

noun / verb · Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York

mines

pronoun · Black American, nationwide

misogynoir

noun · nationwide / internet

Miss Ann

noun · nationwide

Miss Mary Mack

noun · Nationwide

Mister Charlie

noun · Southern United States

mitt pounding

noun · Harlem and the Black theater circuit; carried nationally by the Black press

mixtape

noun · The Bronx, New York City

mmhm

interjection · South / national

mojo

noun · Southern · nationwide

mojo hand

noun · Deep South — Mississippi, Louisiana and the Delta

monkey chaser

noun · Harlem, New York

moo juice

noun · documented in Wisconsin lunch-counter lingo and in Harlem jive within the same five years; effectively national

mopping

verb · New York City (ballroom)

mother

noun · Harlem, New York; ballroom

mother wit

noun · South / nationwide

Motown

noun · Detroit

mourner's bench

noun · Rural Black South, carried north by the Great Migration

mug man

noun · Harlem, NYC

muggles

n. · New Orleans / Chicago jazz circuit

mumbo sauce

noun · Washington, D.C.

munch

noun · Bronx, New York City

murder

n. · Harlem, New York

my bad

interjection · U.S. Black communities; playground and pickup basketball

my people my people

phrase · Nationwide

Nae Nae

noun · Atlanta

nan

quantifier · Deep South / Florida

nann

quantifier · Deep South / Florida

nappy

adjective · Nationwide

naps

n. · national; Southern in origin

nation sack

noun · Memphis, Tennessee and the surrounding Mississippi Delta and eastern Arkansas

nawf

noun / adjective · North Houston, Texas (origin); north Atlanta (later)

nearer my God to thee

noun phrase · Harlem, New York; the Black South

neck bones

noun · the Black South; Great Migration cities

neo-soul

noun · New York and Philadelphia industry offices; artists drawn from Richmond, Dallas, Philadelphia, Brooklyn and elsewhere

New Negro

noun · First attested in Cleveland, Ohio; later centered on Harlem, New York

new way

noun · New York City ballroom

nigga

noun · nationwide; African American English

nitty-gritty

noun · Black American English, national

nix out

verb · Harlem, New York

no homo

phrase · East Harlem, New York City

no tea no shade

phrase · Originated among Black and Latino queer New Yorkers; now general American English

nose open

phrase · Black urban America — documented in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles

now you cookin' with gas

phrase · Harlem and the Black press; general American English within a decade

numbers runner

noun · Harlem, Chicago, and Detroit

nutcracker

noun · Manhattan (Washington Heights, Harlem, Upper West Side), the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and the Rockaways; increasingly Philadelphia, Atlanta and wherever New York vendors travel

ock

noun · Philadelphia

OD

adv. · New York City

ofay

noun · Nationwide, Harlem Renaissance

off the cob

adjective · Harlem, New York

off the hook

adjective · Atlanta and the Southern and mid-Atlantic Black corridor

off-time jive

phrase · Harlem / nationwide

oh word

interjection · New York City; carried outward by hip-hop

Okurrr

interjection · Los Angeles, California; Black queer media and drag culture

old way

noun phrase · Harlem and downtown New York City

on fleek

phrase · Chicago / internet

on go

phrase · Chicago, Midwest

on my mama

phrase · The South / nationwide

on sight

adverbial/predicate phrase (esp. in "it's on sight") · United States

oomf

noun · Black Twitter

opp

noun · Chicago, Illinois

opulence

noun · Harlem / ballroom

Orange Mound

noun · Memphis, Tennessee

orchestration

noun · Harlem and the Black swing-band circuit

Oreo

noun · nationwide

out of pocket

adjective · Black America, nationwide

outside

adjective · adverb · nationwide

pad

noun · Harlem, New York City

passing

noun · national — wherever the color line ran

patterollers

noun (plural) · the slave South

patting juba

noun · US South (Lowcountry)

peckerwood

noun · The South

pecking

noun · Harlem, New York

peep game

verb · U.S. Black urban communities

peeping through my likkers

phrase · Harlem, New York City

peola

noun · nationwide

periodt

interjection · South / Black gay vernacular

phat

adjective · Nationwide

phonk

noun · Memphis, Tennessee and Miami, Florida

piano

noun · Harlem, New York City

pick me

noun · nationwide

pig meat

noun · Mississippi Valley and the blues South

pinder

noun · South Carolina / Lowcountry

pink chaser

noun · Harlem, New York City

pink toes

noun · Harlem, New York City

plat-eye

noun · Sea Islands and coastal Lowcountry, South Carolina and Georgia

play cousin

noun · Nationwide

play yourself

phrase · nationwide; New York

playa

noun · Nationwide

player

noun · Oakland and Chicago; nationwide

plex

verb · Houston

policy

noun · Chicago; urban North

pookie

noun · Black American households, no single city of origin

pop dip and spin

noun phrase · Harlem and greater New York ballroom scene; now worldwide via the ball circuit

pop off

verb · Nationwide

pop out

verb · nationwide

poppin trunk

verb phrase · Houston, Texas — Third Ward, South Park, Fifth Ward, Northside; spread across Texas and the wider South

pops

noun · Harlem and the jazz circuit

pot liquor

noun · American South

pounders

noun · Harlem, New York

praise break

noun · Black Pentecostal and Holiness churches — Church of God in Christ first, now Baptist and non-denominational congregations too

praise house

n. · South Carolina and Georgia Sea Islands

press and curl

noun · Black America — St. Louis, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and across the South

pressed

adjective · Nationwide

probate

noun, verb · Historically Black college campuses, Southern and Mid-Atlantic; the Divine Nine fraternities and sororities

process

noun · nationwide

props

noun · Nationwide

purr

interjection · Nationwide

pushing P

phrase · south

put on

verb · phrase · nationwide

put some respect on it

phrase · New Orleans / nationwide

put your foot in it

phr. · Black American South

quiet storm

noun · Washington, DC, then national

race man

noun · Black press cities — Chicago, New York, national

race records

noun · Coined at Okeh Records, New York City; the category structured record sales nationwide

race woman

noun · Black America, nationwide

Railroad Bill

proper noun · southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle; the ballad spread across the South and into the Appalachians

rap

verb / noun · Harlem, New York

ratchet

adjective · Shreveport, Louisiana

raw

adj. · national

reading is fundamental

interjection · Harlem and Manhattan ballroom scene, New York

real one

noun · nationwide

realness

noun · Harlem, Northeast

receipts

noun · nationwide

reckless eyeballing

noun · American South

red drink

noun · Texas and the Gulf South especially, and Black communities nationwide

red rice

noun · Gullah Geechee Lowcountry — South Carolina and Georgia Sea Islands

Red Summer

noun · United States

reefer

noun · Harlem / jazz circuit

reet

adjective · Harlem, New York City; national via the swing circuit

Renegade

noun · Fayetteville and Atlanta, Georgia; spread nationwide via TikTok

rent party

noun · Harlem, Northeast

represent

verb · New York City origin — the Bronx and Queens especially; nationwide across Black America within a decade

respectability politics

noun · nationwide

rhythm and blues

noun · United States

ridah

noun · California — Bay Area and Los Angeles

ride or die

phrase · New York (Ruff Ryders, Yonkers), national via hip-hop

ridin' dirty

phrase · Houston / Port Arthur, Texas

riff

noun · northeast

right on

interjection · National

righteous

adjective · Harlem, New York City

righteous moss

noun · Harlem and the Black urban North, carried up from the Black South in the Great Migration

ring shout

noun · Georgia / South Carolina Sea Islands

road dog

noun · Los Angeles, California; national

rock with

verb phrase · nationwide; strongest in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and South

rootworker

noun · The American South — Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, the Gulf states, the Mississippi Delta — and carried north and west by the Great Migration

ruff

noun · Harlem, NYC

rug cutter

noun · Harlem, New York

russian

noun · Harlem / nationwide

rusty dusty

noun · Black American — Kansas City and New York blues circuit

sad

adjective · Harlem, New York; also Black communities in the Midwest and nationally

saditty

adjective · Urban North / South

sagging

noun, verb · Los Angeles, then nationwide

salty

adjective · Harlem / national

salty dog

noun · Mississippi Delta, New Orleans and the Piedmont

Sambo

noun · United States

sanctified

adjective · Mississippi, then Memphis and nationwide

sauce

noun · south

say her name

verb phrase · nationwide

say it loud

phrase · Los Angeles studio, Augusta and Macon, Georgia roots; nationwide

say it with your chest

verb phrase · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; national

scarf

verb · Harlem and Black Chicago; carried out along the Black newspaper network to Pittsburgh, Baltimore and the South

scat

noun, verb · Black American performance — ragtime and vaudeville stages, New Orleans, then Chicago and Harlem

scrap iron

noun · Harlem

scraper

noun · west

scratching

noun · The Bronx, New York

scrilla

noun · Bay Area / West Coast

scrub

noun · Atlanta / nationwide

secure the bag

phrase · Atlanta / national

seditty

adjective · Urban North / South

sellout

noun · United States

send

verb · Harlem, New York

sender

noun · Harlem, New York City

serving

verb · Harlem, Northeast

shade

noun · Harlem / ballroom

sharp

adjective · Harlem

sheesh

interjection · nationwide

shiesty

adj. · Hip-hop vernacular (New York to Memphis)

shim sham

noun · Chicago and Harlem, Black vaudeville

shimmy

noun · The Black South and the Black vaudeville circuit

Shine

proper noun · Black urban neighborhoods and prison yards — documented in Philadelphia, Harlem, the Delta, and Texas prisons

sho nuff

interjection · adverb · south

shorty

noun · Nationwide — New York / Atlanta

shotgun house

noun · New Orleans and the Gulf South, spreading upriver

shout

noun · Coastal South; Black church nationwide

shuck and jive

verb phrase · Nationwide, Black communities

siced

adjective · DMV

sickening

adjective · Harlem ballroom · nationwide

sideshow

n. · Oakland / East Bay, California

signifying

verb · South / nationwide

signifying monkey

noun · Black American, Southern-rooted and urbanized

simp

noun · Oakland, the Bay Area and Los Angeles; first documented in Black campus speech in the Northeast

sis

noun · nationwide

sissy bounce

noun · New Orleans

sittin sideways

phr. · Houston, Texas

situationship

noun · nationwide

Six Seven

interjection / noun · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

skillet

noun · Harlem and the rural South

skin beater

noun · Harlem, New York City, and the Black touring-band circuit

skinfolk ain't kinfolk

phrase · Southern in origin; national in current use

skins

noun · Jazz circuit / nationwide

sky piece

noun · Harlem / jazz circuit

slab

noun · Houston, Texas

slaps

verb · Bay Area, California

slatt

interjection · south

slave

v. · Harlem, New York City

slay

verb · New York ballroom / nationwide

slept on

adjective · Nationwide

slide your jib

phrase · Harlem, New York

slime

noun · Queens NYC / Atlanta

slow drag

verb · New Orleans and the rural Black South

slow jam

noun · Black radio nationally

smoke

noun · Atlanta; nationwide

smothered

adjective · Louisiana and the Gulf South, the broader Black South; carried to Chicago, Detroit, Harlem and California

snack

noun · nationwide

snake hips

noun · the Black South, then Harlem

snap music

noun · Bankhead, West Atlanta, Georgia

snapped

verb · Nationwide; Black Twitter and rap

snapping

noun · Black American; the 1990s wave centered in New York

snatched

adjective · New York ballroom / nationwide

snatcher

noun · Harlem, New York City; earlier British underworld cant

sneaky link

noun (also verb: to sneaky link) · United States

snoots

noun · St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois

social aid and pleasure club

noun · New Orleans, Louisiana

soft life

phrase · Nigerian women's internet culture, then Black American women's internet culture

sold down the river

phrase · The domestic slave trade — Upper South to Deep South, by the Ohio and Mississippi

solid

adjective · Harlem / national

son

noun · New York City

sooner

noun · US South and South Midland; carried to Harlem

sorrow songs

noun · Black Belt South; the phrase coined at Atlanta University, Georgia

soul

noun · United States

soul brother

noun · National

soul food

noun · Coined in Northern Black cities; the cuisine itself Southern

Soul Train line

noun · Chicago, then Los Angeles and nationwide

sounding

noun · Harlem, New York for the term; the practice is nationwide under other names

sporting life

noun · urban Black America

spy boy

n. · New Orleans, Louisiana

square

noun · Harlem / nationwide

square from Delaware

phrase · Harlem, New York, with Philadelphia in the mix from the start

Stagger Lee

proper noun · St. Louis, Missouri

Stagolee

proper noun · St. Louis, Missouri

stanch out

verb · Harlem, New York

standing on business

phrase · Black America, nationwide

Stanky Legg

noun (dance) · Dallas–Arlington, Texas

stay

verb · nationwide

steady

adverb · nationwide

steez

noun · New York City

step show

noun · HBCU campuses across the South and Mid-Atlantic; NPHC chapters at predominantly white institutions nationwide

Stepin Fetchit

proper noun / epithet · United States (1920s)

steppers set

noun · Chicago, Illinois

steppin

noun · Chicago, Illinois

stone

adjective/adverb (intensifier) · Black urban speech nationwide, from street-corner toasts to soul radio

stop snitching

phrase · United States

storm buzzard

noun · Black Florida and the rural Deep South, carried into Harlem

stride

noun; adjective · Harlem, New York City; Sea Islands ring-shout roots

studyin

verb · south

suck teeth

verb phrase; noun (suck-teeth) · Black Atlantic — West Africa, the Caribbean, Black America

sucka free

adjective · San Francisco — the Fillmore and Bayview–Hunters Point; the wider Bay Area

Sugar Hill

noun · Harlem, New York

sundown town

noun · Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, the Ozarks, and the West more than the Deep South

Suzie-Q

noun · Harlem, New York

swag surf

verb phrase; also noun (the dance) · Stone Mountain / Atlanta, Georgia; HBCU campuses nationwide

swangas

n. · Houston, Texas

swangin

verb · Houston, South

SWATS

noun · Southwest Atlanta, Georgia

Sweet Auburn

proper noun · Atlanta, Georgia

sweet man

noun · Black American — Harlem and the blues circuit

sweetback

noun · Mississippi Delta and the Deep South; Chicago, New Orleans, Harlem

swerve

interjection · Detroit

swing

noun / verb · New York, Chicago and Kansas City (1920s-30s)

swole

adjective · nationwide

syndicating

v. · Florida and the Gulf South

tag

noun, verb · Philadelphia and New York City, spreading nationally and then worldwide

take an L

phrase · Nationwide

take it to the bridge

phrase · Black funk bandstand tradition — recorded in Nashville

take off

verb · Harlem and the national jazz circuit

talking out the side of your neck

phrase · Black American speech nationwide; carried further by funk and by the Southern HBCU band circuit

talmbout

verb · South / national

tar baby

noun · US South (enslaved storytellers; printed 1881)

TCB

verb phrase / initialism · Black urban speech nationwide; Detroit and the chitlin circuit prominent

tea

noun · South / Black gay and drag communities

tea cakes

noun · The South; nationwide after the Great Migration

tear da club up

verb phrase · Memphis, Tennessee (1995)

ten toes down

phrase · South; nationwide

tender-headed

adjective · nationwide (Southern roots)

tenderoni

noun · Harlem

tens across the board

phrase · Harlem ballroom

testify

verb · American South, then Black communities nationwide

thang

noun · South / national

that part

phrase · Black American; California associations strongest