righteous

[Jonathan Lighter]

Dan Burley's got it too, in 1944.  Maybe Ben can dig an earlier one out of the _Defender_.

  Wilson : as you well know, they got their name from the cat who commented,
  "Righteous, brother ! " after (or maybe during) a song.  He meant "great, splendid, the real thing, deeply satisfying" rather than "of white people"...one hopes.

  Even in "righteous moss" the word can be easily construed to mean "good" (cf. "good hair").

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: righteous
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 1/7/06, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jesse Sheidlower
> Subject: Re: righteous
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sat, Jan 07, 2006 at 12:40:38AM -0500, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >
> > 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.
>
> OED cites this back to Zora Neale Hurston in 1942.
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
> OED
>

It's nice that someone besides God knows. :-) Thanks, Jesse!

-Wilson




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