Phat [was Re: gay/ghey/ghay]

[Jonathon Green]

FWIW I offer:

1968  ‘Hy Lit’ _Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dictionary of Hip Words_ 14: FAT -
Great; cool; you dig it; boss; likeable; nice; ultra-hip.

This was, of course, a dictionary of Black slang. Given hip-hop's
propensity to re-spell many words as a deliberate statement of difference,
I would suggest that this has a better claim than the many acronyms,
although I would suggest that they are not quite as absurd as F.U.C.K.
(my preferred versions is 'Fornicate Under Command of the King',
supposedly alluding to some law of, I think, Charles II).

And 'fat' has meant 'good' since at least 1610.

However, the November 1973 edition of Connie Eble's ongoing _Campus Slang_
list has:

_phat_ - nice looking and shapely, applied to females

which of course long predates hiphop. There is, however, no suggestion of
an acronym.

Jonathon Green