[Ads-l] Antedating of "Da Bomb"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

Huh, that's weird. The regularly spelled version _the bomb_, which OED has from 1983 as the first example of this sense, has been around since 1975:

1975 _P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)_ (song, perf. 'Parliament') (spoken-word introduction):
Dealers of funky music. P.Funk, uncut funk, the bomb.

I'm 100% sure I discussed this with John Simpson; I'm not sure how it slipped through the cracks.

Jesse Sheidlower

On Sat, May 10, 2025 at 08:28:15PM +0000, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
> da bomb (OED 1999)
> 
> 1992 Spokane Chronicle 25 May B1 (Newspapers.com)
> 
> The media show young blacks like me that the only language we know how to speak is street slang like ... "dat jam is da bomb."
> 
> Fred Shapiro
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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