Phat [was Re: gay/ghey/ghay]
Jonathon Green
slang at ABECEDARY.NET
Mon May 31 21:01:14 UTC 2004
FWIW I offer:
1968 ‘Hy Lit’ _Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dictionary of Hip Words_ 14: FAT -
Great; cool; you dig it; boss; likeable; nice; ultra-hip.
This was, of course, a dictionary of Black slang. Given hip-hop's
propensity to re-spell many words as a deliberate statement of difference,
I would suggest that this has a better claim than the many acronyms,
although I would suggest that they are not quite as absurd as F.U.C.K.
(my preferred versions is 'Fornicate Under Command of the King',
supposedly alluding to some law of, I think, Charles II).
And 'fat' has meant 'good' since at least 1610.
However, the November 1973 edition of Connie Eble's ongoing _Campus Slang_
list has:
_phat_ - nice looking and shapely, applied to females
which of course long predates hiphop. There is, however, no suggestion of
an acronym.
Jonathon Green
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