[Ads-l] aight

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The OED has earlier citations as Jesse pointed out, but this citation
might be useful because it uses the "aight" spelling. The 1993
citations in the OED use the following spellings: "ay-aight" and
"I-ight".

Date: March 24, 1995
Periodical: Scope
Article: Letters Build a Bridge: Continents Apart, Students Connect as Pen Pals
Author: John Rearick
(Note: Letter from Donzetta)
Start Page 12, Quote Page 13
Publisher: Scholastic Inc., New York
Database: Internet Archive

[Begin excerpt]
This is crazy, but you might like it. Here are a few street words:
1. "chill" means to relax or calm down.
2. "Phat" means something really good or you really like it.
3. "Butta" is the same as phat.
4. "Aight" (All right) means to agree or saying goodbye.
5. "Shorty" means cute when you're talking to a girl.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Aug 12, 2026 at 7:40 AM Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:
>
> OED has this, with cites for the adjective from 1993 (in the form "I'm ay-aight"), 1999 ("aight"); and for the interjection 1993 ("I-ight"), 2000 ("A-aight").
>
> <Waiting for Fred to improve on this for the ODAAE>
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
>
> On Wed, Aug 12, 2026 at 07:12:17AM -0400, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/movies/articles/elliot-page-says-christopher-nolan-071350685.html
> >
> > [T]he movie was just not very interesting. Whether it was true to the
> > source material or not, it was just aight. Nothing new there.
> > I've been hearing this in speech, occasionally, for twenty-five years, but
> > I've never seen it in print  till now.  Lots in N.
> >
> > 2002 _Winston-Salem Journal_ (Jan. 7) D-3 [N]: I'll holla at ya, aight?
> >
> > 2003 _Albuquerque Tribune_ (July 5) (Comics) unp. [N]: Black English
> > Month...A'ight. I'm down.
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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