[Ads-l] Antedating of "Baller"

[Shapiro, Fred]

baller (OED, 1.b., 1990)

Dictionary.com describes a 1988 use of this term as follows:

Basketballer is still in use today and has been clipped to baller in hip-hop lyrics since the late 1980s. In his 1988 “The Syndicate,” rapper Ice-T describes “Ballers, mafia, down to throw, gangstas, convicts, throwin solid blows.” Here, a baller had come to be a successful person, living an ostentatious<https://www.dictionary.com/browse/ostentatious> lifestyle, which specifically pointed to the lavish spending of some professional basketball stars during that time.

Fred Shapiro

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