Chillaxing

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 22:21:29 -0000, Michael Quinion
<wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG> wrote:

>Another subscriber asks about "chillaxing", which a Web search shows
>easily enough is a recent slang term (~2000?) created as a blend of
>"chill" and "relaxing".

DTWW has Usenet cites from 1994 for "chillax" and 1998 for "chillaxin":

http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/chillax/

>It turned up in a reader's review in the issue of <em>Newsday</em>
>for 8 December last year about "Destiny Fulfilled", the reunion album
>of Destiny's Child: "The album as a whole ... actually sounds like a
>parody of a hip-hop record, and is, in fact, too played out for
>servin', too wack for chillaxing, and much too bunk to twurk to."
>
>Could somebody give me a translation of the last bit? And what's the
>cultural context here - is it enough to say it's rap slang, or is
>there more that needs to be said?

Sounds like ironic hyper-hiphoppery, perhaps assisted by the online Rap
Dictionary...

http://www.rapdict.org/Bunk
bunk
   1. Unpleasant, bad.
   2. A load of bunk: a lot of nonsense.

http://www.rapdict.org/Twurk
Twurk
   1. Twurk is a type of dance. "Shorty you can twurk in your skirt, if
you want to" -- Ying Yang Twins (Whistle While You Twurk) [1]
(http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/yingyang/walking/whistle.yng.txt), "How
many dollars its gone take, to see you bounce that ass girl make that
ass twurk" -- Beelow f/ Ms. Peaches (How Many Dollars) [2]
(http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/beelow/holic/how_many.bee.txt)
   2. To have sexual intercourse.


--Ben Zimmer