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Look up slay in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Slay is a slang colloquialism that possibly originated during the 1600s, but gained its current LGBT connotation in the 1970s from ball culture. Originally having a meaning similar to "that joke was killer", slay has since gained a definition meaning being impressed or term of agreement.
While the term slay is often used in the context of murder or killing, first use of the term as slang is first listed in 1593, meaning something similar to "dying of laughter." [1] It saw a resurgence in the Roaring Twenties under a very similar meaning. [2] [3] [4]
The term grew in popularity in the 1970s in spaces inhabited mainly by Black, Latino, and queer spaces as a result of ballroom culture, gaining a place in African-American Vernacular English. Slay gained considerable attention after the release of Paris Is Burning which documented ballroom culture in New York City in 1990, as the term was often used in the film. [5] It is here where slay started to gain a connotation of a term of agreement and for something to be impressive. [6]
With its prominence in the LGBT community, the term has seen a growth outside of these communities since 2009 as a result of RuPaul's Drag Race, where slay, as other terms used mainly in the LGBT community, were thrown around between contestants. [7] The show would also use the word in a special in 2018, the RuPaul's Drag Race Holi-slay Spectacular, as well as the word's usage by RuPaul becoming an internet meme. [8]
The term reached mainstream status in 2016 due to its use by Beyoncé in her song "Formation", which was performed at the Super Bowl 50 halftime show. "Formation" contains a repeating line "'Cause I slay (slay), I slay (hey)" found between verses, as well as at the end of lyrics such as "now let's get in formation", which is followed by the response "'cause I slay". [9]
Slay has since gained significant popularity and mainstream usage on social media, in both an ironic and unironic context. [10] As a result, it has sparked discussion on whether this expanded usage of the term past African-American Vernacular English speakers constitutes appropriation. [11]
Jargon or technical language is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The context is usually a particular occupation, but any ingroup can have jargon. The key characteristic that distinguishes jargon from the rest of a language is its specialized vocabulary, which includes terms and definitions of words that are unique to the context, and terms used in a narrower and more exact sense than when used in colloquial language. This can lead outgroups to misunderstand communication attempts. Jargon is sometimes understood as a form of technical slang and then distinguished from the official terminology used in a particular field of activity.
A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and have been a part of gay culture.
In linguistics, a neologism is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered a neologism once it is published in a dictionary.
This is a list of British words not widely used in the United States. In Commonwealth of Nations, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and Australia, some of the British terms listed are used, although another usage is often preferred.
Yo is a slang interjection, commonly associated with North American English. It was popularized by the Italian-American community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the 1940s.
Dude is American slang for an individual, typically male. From the 1870s to the 1960s, dude primarily meant a male person who dressed in an extremely fashionable manner or a conspicuous citified person who was visiting a rural location, a "city slicker". In the 1960s, dude evolved to mean any male person, a meaning that slipped into mainstream American slang in the 1970s. Current slang retains at least some use of all three of these common meanings.
LGBTQ slang, LGBTQ speak, queer slang, or gay slang is a set of English slang lexicon used predominantly among LGBTQ+ people. It has been used in various languages since the early 20th century as a means by which members of the LGBTQ+ community identify themselves and speak in code with brevity and speed to others.
Republicrat or Demopublican are portmanteau names for both of the two major political parties in the United States, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, collectively. These derogatory names first appeared in the 1872 United States presidential election.
A Daddy in gay culture is a slang term meaning a man sexually involved in a relationship with a younger male.
Gay is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
People from the United States of America are known as and refer to themselves as Americans. Different languages use different terms for citizens of the United States. All forms of English refer to US citizens as Americans, a term deriving from the United States of America, the country's official name. In the English context, it came to refer to inhabitants of British America, and then the United States. There is some linguistic ambiguity over this use due to the other senses of the word American, which can also refer to people from the Americas in general. Other languages, including French, Japanese, and Russian, use cognates of American to refer to people from the United States, while others, particularly Spanish and Portuguese, primarily use terms derived from United States or North America. There are various other local and colloquial names for Americans. The name America came from the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.
In gay slang, queen is a term used to refer to a flamboyant or effeminate gay man. The term can either be pejorative or celebrated as a type of self-identification.
"Kiki", a term which started in ballroom culture, and was also for decades used in lesbian lingo to refer to a woman who was neither butch nor femme. The use of kiki as a gathering was later made more famous in the 2012 song "Let's Have a Kiki" by the Scissor Sisters, and has recently been brought back to slang by the LGBT community, is loosely defined as a gathering of friends for the purpose of gossiping and chit-chat.
Social justice warrior (SJW) is a pejorative term and internet meme mostly used for an individual who promotes socially progressive, left-wing or liberal views, including feminism, civil rights, gay and transgender rights, and multiculturalism. The accusation that somebody is an SJW carries implications that they are pursuing personal validation rather than any deep-seated conviction, and engaging in disingenuous arguments.
The expressions "throw shade", "throwing shade", or simply "shade", are slang terms for a certain type of insult, often nonverbal. Journalist Anna Holmes called shade "the art of the sidelong insult". Merriam-Webster defines it as "subtle, sneering expression of contempt for or disgust with someone—sometimes verbal, and sometimes not".
Woke, the African-American English synonym for the General American English word awake, has since the 1930s or earlier been used to refer to awareness of social and political issues affecting African Americans, often in the construction stay woke. Beginning in the 2010s, it came to be used to refer to a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights. Woke has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice, such as white privilege and reparations for slavery in the United States.
Yas, sometimes spelledYass, is a playful or non-serious slang term equivalent to the excited or celebratory use of the interjection "yes!", carrying LGBT cultural associations. Yas was added to Oxford Dictionaries in 2017 and defined as a form of exclamation "expressing great pleasure or excitement". Yas was defined by Oxygen's Scout Durwood as "a more emphatic 'yes' often paired with 'queen'." Yas can alternatively be spelled with any number of A's and S's in order to increase the grade of excitement or add more emphasis. In other words, the exclamation often appears in the form "Yas, queen!" and sometimes "yaasss!"
Becky is a female nickname for Rebecca. In some areas of popular culture, the name is a pejorative American slang term for a young white woman. The term has come to be associated with a "white girl who loves Starbucks and Uggs"; for this reason, "Becky" is often associated with the slang term "basic", which has many similar connotations.
