shawty

[Darla Wells]

Another thing I have noticed about both forms of shorty/shawty is that they
only go downhill, that is, that status matters. I've never heard it used to
refer to someone the speaker wants to show respect or to older people.
Darla

2012/2/9 Jackie Schmitt <desaparecida at gmail.com>

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jackie Schmitt <desaparecida at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      shawty
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>
> I see there's been some discussion of "shawty" earlier ('09-'10) but I want
> to revisit it.  Particularly, what are the implications of a shawty's
> race/ethnicity, age, gender/sex, or relationship to the speaker?
>
> I see "shawty" is well-attested to as a direct address in the Urban
> Dictionary sources from earlier but it can also be more generic (Google
> reveals examples like "shawty wanna thug," "shawty wanna hump," "proud to
> call her my shawty," etc.)  "Shawty" also seems to become an exclamation in
> songs (q.v. "girl," "baby") -- I'm really divorced from pop culture, but
> the first example that comes to mind for me is T-Pain in Lonely Island's
> "I'm On A Boat."  I'm sure there are other, better, non-parody examples.
>
> I can attest to shawties not being exclusively black, as some sources
> suggest.  In my old neighborhood (Midwest, lower-class, maybe about 75%
> African-American) I got catcalled by several young black men who addressed
> me as "shawty."  (I am unequivocally white, in my early 20s, and pass as
> female.)
>
> Here's where things get weird:  I know a man (probably at least 50 years
> old, and black) who refers to his two grandchildren (a 6-year-old boy of
> ambiguous race, and an 8-year-old girl who passes as white) as "shawties"
> (not as direct address, and in fact only when they're out of the room).
>  I'm not sure how reliable this is -- it could be a classic example of
> older speakers adopting slang and changing its meaning.  It could be an
> older use of "shawty," indicating that the term's meaning has become more
> specific over time.  It could be bleaching of meaning more generally.
>
> Do we have a date for the first appearance(s) of "shawty?"
>
> Jackie Schmitt
>
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