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

[Margaret Lee]

"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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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org