Take the rag off the bush---(origin of "rap" (talk)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>Could be, I guess. There's nothing that says that there can be only
>one origin of a slang term. FWIW, my experience is that "rap" in the
>sense of "hit, strike" is only a literary term among black speakers.
>I've never used it with that meaning, myself, and I've never heard it
>so used by any other black person. Indeed, I've heard it spoken only
>once by anyone at all, in real life. When I was in the Army, I once
>heard a white GI say, "Stop it, or I'll rap you in the mouth!"

I don't think "rap someone" = "hit someone" is very common. But there's
"rap someone's knuckles".

My own guess (which is worth what it costs y'all) is that the intransitive
"rap" = "fast-talk" or so comes from the old transitive "rap" = "speak
forcibly" or so as in "He rapped out a series of orders". A young man might
have been highly respected on the street in 1965, maybe, if he could "rap
to the girls" ... rapping (I suppose) meaning articulately and persuasively
speaking, not stammering or mumbling like some of us do or did ....

I think then this may have been modified a little ca. 1968 to give "rap" =
"have a frank discussion"/"speak freely" as in "rap session".

Alternative hypotheses would derive "rap" from "repartee", "rapport", or
even "rapprochement". (^_^)

-- Doug Wilson



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