drop

[Ben Zimmer]

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 9:07 AM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>
> On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 01:36:37PM +0000, Lynne Murphy wrote:
> > 'Mozilla dropped the Firefox 4 release candidate for developers yesterday,
> > but as of this afternoon the release candidate is available for everyone to
> > download and test out. '
> > From:
> > <http://lifehacker.com/#!5780393/firefox-4-release-candidate-now-available-to-everyone>
> >
> > Is this a basketball metaphor? Is it marketing jargon or geek speak? Does
> > it require less processing effort for you than for me? :)
>
> This is originally hip-hop slang, and refers to releasing a recording or
> the like. OED has this to 1992 (following HDAS):
>
> 1992 _Rap Masters_ Jan. 58 In 1979...the Sugarhill Gang dropped their
> first rap album.

_drop_, trans. 'to release'

http://books.google.com/books?id=e7GU2Uztk1UC&pg=PA44
1988 _Spin_ May 44/3 I think that I should be able to drop records
when I want... A record called "Dedicated" [to Runny Ray], when I
first made it -- could have dropped that.
[quoting Run of Run-DMC]

http://books.google.com/books?id=RDWxkmx1bj4C&pg=PA32
1990 _Spin_ Dec. 32/2 Kraze ... had a hit with the wonderfully
obnoxious "Shut Up" and are about to drop their debut album.

http://books.google.com/books?id=5zrzfgLFgUYC&pg=RA1-PT19
1991 _Spin_ Dec. 87/1 In a few months I'm gonna drop a hard EP... So
when I drop this EP all the hard rockers around here is gonna flip,
because it's gonna be def.
[quoting Queen Latifah]


_drop_, intrans. 'to be released'

http://books.google.com/books?id=e7GU2Uztk1UC&pg=PA45
1988 _Spin_ May 45/1 Maybe after my album drops and I'm back on the
road and doing what I'm supposed to do in this world, I'll be happy.
[quoting Run of Run-DMC]


--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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