getting his freak

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 2:40 PM, Paul Frank <paulfrank at post.harvard.edu> wrote:
>
> From today's Washington Post:
>
> "The females had what you might call a casual attitude toward sex," a
> detective said, adding that Carter "was busy getting his freak on with
> the younger lady."
>
> I need to get out more, because the term "to get his freak on" is new
> to me. Then again, folks outside my doorstep speak French (and
> Portuguese and Gheg Albanian, but not English), so it probably
> wouldn't do me much good.

A quick check of the archives finds discussion of "get your freak on"
and the more general form "get your X on" from 1999 and 2005:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9910A&L=ADS-L&P=R5219
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0508C&L=ADS-L&P=R7451

As discussed in the latter thread, "get (one's) groove on" is likely
the founding form, dating to the early '90s.

--Ben Zimmer

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