January 16, 2003

THE HISTORY OF PHAT.

A particularly welcome section from a Merriam-Webster page of excerpts from Flappers 2 Rappers, a history of youth slang by Tom Dalzell. [Via Prentiss Riddle.]

Posted by languagehat at January 16, 2003 08:28 AM
Comments

There's a lot of interesting stuff over there! Their explanation of "phat" got me wondering about the origins of "def," but I guess I'll have to buy their book to learn more :).

Posted by: Songdog at January 16, 2003 09:31 AM

For those of you having trouble looking up the book, it's "Flappers 2 Rappers". Ugh. (At least it's not "Ph14px0rz 2 R4px0rz", so I suppose we should be grateful.)

Posted by: Prentiss Riddle at January 16, 2003 08:03 PM

Oops! Oh well, if they click on the link they'll get to the right place...

Posted by: language hat at January 16, 2003 08:43 PM