African American Slang

b. Of things or abstract concepts.
1937 Sun (Baltimore) 19 Aug. 8/1 This picture is described as ‘the wackiest’.
1941 B. SCHULBERG What makes Sammy Run? i. 14 The whole office was
afraid of him. I know that sounds wacky. Hardened newspapermen being afraid

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of a..little office-boy? 1959 S. H. COURTIER Death in Dream Time x. 141 Your
cousin's death was wacky why go to the trouble of staging an accident? 1969 L.
HELLMAN Unfinished Woman iv. 37 The office was a wacky joint in a
brownstone house on 48th Street. 1975 D. LODGE Changing Places v. 191 A
characteristically whacky, yet somehow endearing tenderness for individual
liberty. 1984 Listener 24 May 39/3 In his fear of death Betjeman's hand shook,
and lines were created more from wacky fright than profound or energising
contemplation.
Hence wackiness, the state or quality of being ‘wacky’; craziness, oddness.
1941 Sun (Baltimore) 1 Oct. 10/2 Maybe the majority won't think that ‘the
wonderful bums’ [sc. the Brooklyn Dodgers] can win, but they will be out by the
thousands..hoping that wackiness will be more than its own reward. 1980 R. L.
DUNCAN Brimstone iv. 80 For all her wackiness, Annie knew how to live.
APPENDED FROM ADDITIONS 1993
wacky, a. Add: wackily adv., in a ‘wacky’ or crazy manner.
1961 in WEBSTER, Wackily. 1974 E. BRAWLEY Rap (1975) xxxvii. 358 Setting
the sparrows to flying wackily about in the rafters, beaning themselves on the
walls. 1988 Arena Autumn/Winter 33/2 No cuts, no rewrites just a squib of
disinformation in Pravda wackily indicting Orwell for stealing his book from an
essay by an obscure 19th century Russian literary critic.

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Ebonics is a language the does intentionally try to be different from the
mainstream. Only if and when the African American community feels completely
like a part of the U.S. mainstream culture will the desire or the need to develop its
own dialect end. Of course this is not to say that this is a desired result. Ebonics
is a fun variation on the standard, and as stated in the beginning of this paper,
Ebonics has an influence; many would say a positive one, on the mainstream
dialect.

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Works Cited
Green, Jonathon. The Cassell Dictionary of Slang.
London: Cassell, 1998.
Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English
Language.Volume 1 A-K.
Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company, 1966.
Major, Clarence. Dictionary of Afro-American Slang.
New York: International Publishers, 1970. New York
- - -. Juba to Jive: A Dictionary of African American Slang.
London: Penguin Books, 2000.
Oxford English Dictionary Online. 2
nd
ed. May 2001.
http://www.oed.com
Scotti, Anna and Paul Young. Buzz Words
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
Smitherman, Geneva. Black Talk. 2
nd
ed.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.