[Ads-l] Slang: chillax

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Wed Mar 22 21:25:28 UTC 2017


A correspondent told me about a possible early instance of the term "chillax".

[Begin excerpt]
I stumbled across something interesting last night while watching an
Elvis Presley movie called "Live a Little, Love a Little" from 1968.
At 49:41 minutes into the movie, Elvis (playing a photographer) says
the following to a model "Chillax about ten minutes."
[End excerpt]

The correspondent and her friend both believe that Elvis was saying
"chillax". I have not watched the movie scene, so I cannot offer
testimony.

Partridge has a 1993 citation, but there is a suspiciously long gap
between 1968 and 1993.

The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2015)
Edited by Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor

[Begin excerpt]
chillax verb
to calm down and relax US
-- Judi Sanders, Faced and Faded, Hanging to Hurl, p. 8, 1993
[End excerpt]

Green's Dictionary of Slang has the following entry (free version).
https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/ddjo4pi

[Begin excerpt]
chillax v.
[chill (out) v. (2) + SE relax]
[2000s] (orig. US campus) to wind down and relax.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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