street cred (adj. 1979, n. 1982)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 8:47 AM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 12:26 AM, Benjamin Zimmer
> <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> > Latest OED batch has "street cred" from 1984 as an adjective and from
> > 1985 as a noun. Here's earlier for both:
> >
> > adj.:
> > 1979 _Sounds_ 18 Aug. (Rock's Back Pages) And though one might
> > reasonably question the cockney quotient of say Hudson-Ford and other
> > post-Dury dropped-hatch money-spinners, Chris passes the old
> > street-cred, local-lad-maked-good doodah with flying colours.
>
> "street cred" isn't an adj. here, unless you're willing to call "local
> lad maked [sic?] good" an adj. as well. It's just an NP thrown into
> that good old any-old-phrase-can-be-used-as-a-modifier slot.

Hard to tell -- much like the first OED cite, which could either be
adj. (short for "street-credible") or attrib. (short for "street
credibility"):

1984 Guardian (Nexis) 25 July, It's almost a street-cred status thing
to have a miner staying at your place.


--Ben Zimmer

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