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Re "be on the D.L./on the down low" as current slang for
clandestine homosexual activity among married black men: an author who
had been involved in this scene has been shopping around a proposal about
this life--an expose, really--to publishers since last summer. The scene
(in this incarnation, anyway) has been around for about a decade, and the
term is concurrent with the scene. I can't be more specific than that,
unfortunately.<br><br>
Wendalyn Nichols<br><br>
At 08:48 AM 5/6/02 -0700, Ray Villegas wrote:<br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>I don't know where the origin for
the "DL" began but I attend Arizona State University and the
students use it as slang for "keep me on the Down Load" which
is a computer term and the students use it to mean "keep me
informed." I took Language in a Popular culture this past
semester and one of our activies was to go around to different people on
campus listening and writing down the different slang that was
used. That was one word that came up alot and when I asked what the
word meant the class was in agreement that it is "Down Load" or
to be informed. I never have heard it used with African American slang.
This is also the first that I am hearing "DL" to be "Down
Low." <br><br>
Best, <br><br>
<br><br>
Ray Villegas/Student at ASU<br><br>
<br>
<br>
>From: Michael Newman <br>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <br>
>To: ADS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <br>
>Date: Mon, 6 May 2002 08:25:12 -0400 <br>
> <br>
>"On the d.l." is common New York (and other places too I'm
sure). <br>
>hip-hop slang. It may or may not have started in prisons. It is not
<br>
>really <br>
>accurate to describe it as African American because it's kinda
"post <br>
>racial" (an interesting term in and of itself) in the sense that
hip <br>
>hop is. It's used by Latinos, Whites and Caribbeans 'who are down
<br>
>with hip-hop' much as by African Americans, and I think it is pretty
<br>
>much avoided by African Americans <br>
>others who avoid identifying with that peer culture. I only heard it
<br>
>a <br>
>few months ago for the first time, but I heard "On the down
low" at <br>
>least 6 years ago. It is not surprising that the slang would have
<br>
>moved on to the (pretty transparent) initials. I do a slang survey
<br>
>every year in my ling 101, and some of my Orthodox Jewish students
<br>
>mentioned "On the down low," an obvious indication that it
has come <br>
>to the end of its <br>
>run. BTW, they're also saying "my bad." there are a number
of <br>
>hip-hop <br>
>dictionaries. This one derives "on the down low" from
"low profile" <br>
>-- <br>
><a href="http://www.rapdict.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.rapdict.org</a>
<br>
> <br>
>(look under 'd' not 'o') <br>
> <br>
>-- <br>
>Michael Newman <br>
>Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics <br>
>Dept. of Linguistics and Communication Disorders <br>
>Queens College/CUNY <br>
>Flushing, NY 11367 <br><br>
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