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

[Margaret Lee]

Wilson,

  Yes, well do I remember "Betty Lou" by Bobby Freeman. I, too, have questioned  some of Major's work.

  Margaret



Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  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 wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Margaret Lee
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Get on board. You're invited to try the new Yahoo! Mail Beta.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have
found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be
imposed upon them.

Frederick Douglass

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



---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
 Next-gen email? Have it all with the  all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta.

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