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

[Wilson Gray]

Margaret, remember when "Betty-Lou got a new pair of shoes" and "she
cracked up over the solid fit, walkin' down the street in her
brand-new kicks"?

For some reason, I can't get ready for Prof. Major, even though he's
on the faculty at my alma mater and I have both of his books on slang.

-Wilson

On 8/8/06, Margaret Lee <mlee303 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Slang "kickin' it" (= "chillin'")
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "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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