[Ads-l] Antedating of "Playa"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

Joe's "Don't Wanna be a Playa" (released April 15, 1997) is unquestionably the right sense; the entire song is explicitly about abandoning this lifestyle:

---
Don't wanna be a playa no more
I think I found someone I could live my life for
Don't wanna be a playa no more
I think I found someone I could live my life for
I'm yours, you're mine, for sure

I had enough of running wild
I'm switching up my whole lifestyle
I don't wanna live the way I used to
I'm giving up the booty calls
Spending Cs at the ta-ta bars
No leaving with two or three girls to get me off
---

Etc.

Note that The Right Rhymes, Matt Kohl's dictionary of hip-hop language, has a number of mid-90s examples of _playa_ at its entry for _player_, but most of these would be from transcriptions rather than formally published lyrics, so it's not easy to determine what word is truly meant. 

https://therightrhymes.com/player

I don't personally see why _playa_ and _player_ should be regarded as different words for this purpose. 

Jesse Sheidlower 



On May 4, 2025 10:09:14 PM EDT, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>The song title below is ambiguous, but examination of the lyrics might
>bring clarity.
>
>Date: April 25, 1997
>Newspaper: Goldsboro News-Argus
>Newspaper Location: Goldsboro, North Carolina
>Quote Page 11A
>Database: Newspapers.com
>
>[Begin excerpt]
>Billboard lists top audios, videos
>R&B singles ...
>16. "Don't Wanna Be a Playa," Joe (Jive)
>[End excerpt]
>
>Note, OED has "player" with the pertinent sense in 1968:
>[Begin OED citation]
>1968 Player, a man or woman who goes out with many members of the opposite sex.
>Current Slang (University South Dakota) vol. 3 ii. 37
>[End OED citation]
>
>Garson
>
>On Sun, May 4, 2025 at 4:45 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>>
>> playa (OED 1998)
>>
>> 1997 Flint (Mich.) Journal 3 Dec. 7/2 (Newspapers.com)
>>
>> If a man has four or five girlfriends, he's a playa or mack.
>>
>> Fred Shapiro
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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