stupid

[jester at PANIX.COM]

>
>         The current issue of Baseball Weekly quotes a young minor leaguer
> speaking of a team-mate, a pitcher:  "He's stupid against
> left-handers."  The context shows that this is meant to be a
> complimentary remark, and evidently translated into prosaic English
> it means "he's very effective against left-handers".  I've not
> encountered this transvaluation of values before.  Anyone else
> familiar with it?
>         I would guess that it is a development of the idea expressed in the
> baseball use of the word "unconscious": "He's just unconsious right
> now" = "He's playing so extremely well he must be unaware of what he
> is doing, because if he were aware, he would know that what he's
> doing isn't possible."

I don't have any cites handy, but _stupid_ has been increasingly
common as a positive adjective in recent slang use. Examples of
"stupid fresh" should be easy to come by when looking at rap music
sources. I'm sure this dates from the '80s and probably the '70s,
if not earlier still.

I'd like the full cite, if it's not too much trouble.

Jesse Sheidlower