[Ads-l] Antedating of "To Break Bad" (African-American Usage)

[Z S]

Regarding the original article, "break bad" is definitely not "just a
Southern thing". It was heard in my youth up north, though at the time,
most of us seemed to have at least one parent who came from the southern US.

The use of "break" here also appears in "Break fool", "break fly", and so
on:

"Break Fool" by Rah Digga:  https://youtu.be/VCNyGokkCXM?feature=shared&t=52
Break fly in "U.N.I.T.Y." by Queen Latifah:
https://youtu.be/f8cHxydDb7o?feature=shared&t=78

Both rappers are from New Jersey (though this is not meant to suggest that
these terms are exclusive to New Jersey, they are not).

Interestingly, "break fool" also appears in the attached article written by
Corey Richardson, a Virginian: "There’s nothing worse than trying to deal
with Google maps trippin’, your wife second guessing you, your kid in the
backseat begging for that gotdamned Katy Perry song and then some asshole
in a Subaru Forrester tryna *break fool* because you kinda sorta cut him
off when you crossed three lanes of traffic to get to your exit."
Source:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/moments-when-being-a-black-man-is-the-s_b_57f7dd4ce4b0b665ad817e6c

Best,
Zola S.

On Mon, May 5, 2025 at 3:50 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Fred Shapiro wrote:
> > Far more information about "breaking bad" was contained
> > in a posting by the great Bonnie Taylor-Blake.  I have
> > forwarded Bonnie's spectacular posting to the editors of
> > the Oxford Dictionary of African American English.
>
> Here is a link to Bonnie's message from July 20, 2024. I think this is
> the post Fred is referencing:
>
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2024-July/165723.html
>
>
>
> > ________________________________
> > From: Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> > Sent: Sunday, May 4, 2025 8:54 AM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Subject: Antedating of "To Break Bad" (African-American Usage)
> >
> > to break bad (OED, P.2.b., 1965)
> >
> > 1963 Afro-American (Baltimore) 7 Dec. 9 (ProQuest)
> >
> > When I looked at television and saw the shooting [of Lee Harvey Oswald
> ... I said to myslef, this is worse than a Wild West movie.  They certainly
> "break bad" down in Texas.
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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