Slang "kickin' it" (= "chillin'")

[Jonathan Lighter]

It's in HDAS II under _kick_, v., def. 4.g.

  Earliest cite, 1988.  I agree it must be somewhat older.  I don't see it, however, in Smitherman's earlier _Talkin and Testifyin_ or '70s AAVE glossaries.

  JL

Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Margaret Lee
Subject: Re: Slang "kickin' it" (= "chillin'")
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"Kickin' it" evolved from "kickin' back", which evolved from "'kicks", a slang term for shoes; to kick off one's shoes, to "kick back", means to relax.

These are listed in Clarence Major's Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African American Slang (though not in front of me at the moment), and Geneva Smitherman's Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner.

Margaret Lee



Just a guess, but I associate it with the (older?) form "kicking back". (I
also associate the latter with recliner chairs, but that's even more
speculative.)

Jim Parish

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