From Zora Neale Hurston’s Glossary of Harlem Slang



From Zora Neale Hurston’s Glossary of Harlem Slang

Astorperious—haughty, biggity

Bad hair—Negro type hair

Balling—having fun

Beat up your gums-talking without purpose

Butt sprung—a suit or a skirt out of shape in the rear

Coal scuttle blonde—black woman

Collar a hot—eat a meal

Color scale—high yaller, yaller, high brown, vaseline brown, seal brown, low brown, dark black

Eight-rock—very black person

Gut-bucket—low dive, type of music, or expression from same

I’m cracking but I’m facking—“I’m wisecracking, but I’m telling the truth”

Jelly—sex

Jook—a pleasure house, in the class of gut-bucket; now common all over the South

Juice-liquor

Nearer my God to thee—good hair

Ofay—white person

Playing the dozens—low-rating the ancestors of your opponent

Red neck—poor Southern white man

Reefer—marijuana cigarette, also a drag

Righteous mass or grass—good hair

Solid—perfect

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