righteous

[Wilson Gray]

On 1/6/06, FRITZ JUENGLING <juengling_fritz at salkeiz.k12.or.us> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       FRITZ JUENGLING <juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US>
> Subject:      Re: righteous
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >>> gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM 01/06/06 01:55PM >>>
>
> >In the movie "Just Like Heaven" (on the plane coming back), Jon Heder >says "righteous" several times. This word seems to mean something like >"cool",though it sounded like the connotation was a little different. >
> >>Perhaps thisis surfer lingo.
>
> Righteous=cool goes back to the late 60s.  I specifically remember a woman I knew dicsussing this as part of her teenage lingo.
> Fritz J
>
> * * * * *
>

Fritz, surely you haven't forgotten the BE slang use, dating back to
only God knows when, of "righteous" as a term meaning, "typical of
white people," as in "righteous moss," a head of hair naturally like
unto the hair of white people? ;-) When the Afro became hip, beauty
parlors that had formerly sustained themselves straighening
"naturally-curly" hair stayed in business curling the hair of chicks
thitherto "blessed" with righteous moss.

-Wilson