[Ads-l] Slang: chillax

[Ben Zimmer]

I managed to find the movie online and watched the scene in question. I
believe Elvis is saying "Just relax about ten minutes," though he slurs the
words a bit. Judge for yourself -- here's an audio clip:

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/~bgzimmer/justrelax.mp3


On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 5:25 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> A correspondent told me about a possible early instance of the term
> "chillax".
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> I stumbled across something interesting last night while watching an
> Elvis Presley movie called "Live a Little, Love a Little" from 1968.
> At 49:41 minutes into the movie, Elvis (playing a photographer) says
> the following to a model "Chillax about ten minutes."
> [End excerpt]
>
> The correspondent and her friend both believe that Elvis was saying
> "chillax". I have not watched the movie scene, so I cannot offer
> testimony.
>
> Partridge has a 1993 citation, but there is a suspiciously long gap
> between 1968 and 1993.
>
> The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2015)
> Edited by Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> chillax verb
> to calm down and relax US
> -- Judi Sanders, Faced and Faded, Hanging to Hurl, p. 8, 1993
> [End excerpt]
>
> Green's Dictionary of Slang has the following entry (free version).
> https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/ddjo4pi
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> chillax v.
> [chill (out) v. (2) + SE relax]
> [2000s] (orig. US campus) to wind down and relax.
> [End excerpt]
>
>
>

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