An example of white adoption of a Black slang term. The Phat Cart food vendor in Portland, Oregon. Three white people standing outside a food kiosk, with a fourth white person behind the counter writing down orders.
31 January 2022
The Black slang phat means something that is excellent, desirable, rich in quality. It is common in hip-hop parlance where it is often used to refer to music or to sexually desirable women. It is semantically similar to another Black slang term, large. As for its origin, phat is simply a respelling of fat.
The adjective fat has had a sense of rich or abundant for a thousand years. The Old English fætt carried this sense, as can be seen in the version of Psalm 147:3 found in the Arundel Psalter from c.1099 C.E. It’s a Latin Psalter with an Old English interlinear gloss:
forþon he gestrangode hegas gata þinra gebletsode bearn þine on þe. se asette endas heora sibbe & of fætte hwætes gefilþ þe
(Because he strengthened the bars of the gate, blessed your children in you. He established peace on your borders and filled you with the fat of the wheat)
The Latin is adipe frumenti.
This sense is maintained moving into the Middle English period. John Wyclif uses it, c.1380, in a petition which, among other things, criticizes monasteries and convents for taking control of local, parish churches in order to obtain their benefices or endowments:
Also comunly siche chirchis ben approprid by symonie, as þei witen betere hemself, payinge a gret summe of moneye for sich apropriacioun, ȝif þe benefice be faat.
(Also, commonly such churches are appropriated by simony, as they think better of themself, paying a great sum of money for such an appropriation, if the benefice is fat.)
And this sense of fat is perhaps best known in the phrase fat of the land, which comes from Genesis 45:18, first translated this way in the Geneva Bible of 1561:
And take your father, and your housholdes, and come unto me, and I will giue you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shal eat the fat of the land.
But these senses of fat meaning rich or abundant are generally not applied to people, as phat can be.
The phat spelling was first recorded in 1963, making an appearance in an article about Black slang in the 2 August issue of Time magazine:
mellow, phat, stone, boss. General adjectives of approval: a stone fox is a very pretty girl; a boss short is a big car.
The sense of phat meaning sexually desirable was in place by the mid 1970s. Herbert Foster’s 1974 Ribbin’, Jivin’, and Playin’ the Dozens records the following incident:
School has just ended. George is sitting on the steps in the school running a strong rap with a number of girls. A female teacher comes down the steps and hears him say, “How about a kiss, baby?”
[...]
Actually, if the female teacher were a “scab” or a “fish” the student probably would have ignored her. This teacher, however, was a “phat tip.” By making a big play in front of the girls, he was paying her a compliment.
Foster’s notes to this passage read:
The earlier definition of “rapping” or “running a strong rap” had sexual connotations. [...] In jive lexicon or street language a “fish” or a “scab” is an ugly girl. Also, a female who is “phat” is a beautiful girl or woman. My informants tell me that the letters in “phat” stand for “pussy,” “hips,” “ass,” and “tits,” or a “pretty hole at times.” I am sure there are some others. “Tip” is a Buffalo word meaning a girl or woman.
The acronymic origin related here is incorrect, but it is noteworthy that the idea that phat is an acronym has been around as long as the sexually desirable sense has appeared in print.
But it was with the word’s use in 1990s hip-hop culture to refer to music that phat really took off in popularity. Here is an example from the Michigan Chronicle of 4 August 1993 about an unlikely rap artist, child television star Raven-Symoné:
Raven was asked to give three reasons why people should buy her album. She paused for a moment, then explained, “It’s phat. Second there are ten songs, three written by my daddy that I helped write. And, the third reason is every song is for every person. The kids and grownups can listen. So that’s it.” (For those who don’t know, “phat” in hip hop/rap terminology means a strong, slammin’ sound or beat.)
And this about a more typical rap artist from the Afro-American Gazette of 13–19 March 1995:
On his riveting 12 track debut album, This Is How We Do It, on Def Jam, Montell Jordan has successfully bridged the gap between traditional R&B harmonies and phat beats that equal slammin’ tracks.
But phat is not just used to refer to music and attractive women. As the 1963 quotation indicates, it is also a general adjective of approval. From the Black Collegian of October 1996:
I have made it through my first semester I am attending a historically Black college after having gone to predominately White schools all of my life. I have never felt so good. College is phat! I have met some of the most interesting and smart Black students I have ever encountered.
Sources:
“African American Up and Coming Rising Star.” Afro-American Gazette (Grand Rapids, Michigan), 13–19 March 1995, 9. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.
“Americana: Beyond the Ears of the Greys.” Time, 2 August 1963, 14.
The Bible and Holy Scriptures. Geneva: 1561, Genesis 45:18, 24. Early English Texts Online (EEBO).
Dictionary of Old English: A to I, 2018, s.v. fætt, n.
Foster, Herbert L. Ribbin’, Jivin’, and Playin’ the Dozens. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger, 1974, 51–52.
Green’s Dictionary of Slang, 2021, s.v. phat, adj.
Holsey, Steve. “Raven-Symone: The Hardest Working Little Girl in Show Business.” Michigan Chronicle (Detroit), 4 August 1993, 1-B. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Middle English Dictionary, 2019, s.v. fat, adj.
Oess, Guido, ed. Der Altenglische Arundel-Psalter. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1910, Psalm 147:3, 229. HathiTrust Digital Archive. London, British Library, Arundel MS 83.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, June 2001, modified June 2021, s.v. phat, adj.; March 2015, modified December 2021, s.v. large, adj., adv., and n. (and int.); second edition, 1989, s.v. fat, adj. and n.2.
Parker, Linda Bates. Black Collegian (New Orleans), October 1996, 21. ProQuest Magazines.
Wyclif, John. “A Petition to the King and Parliament” (c.1380). Select English Works of John Wyclif, vol. 3 of 3. Thomas Arnold, ed. London: Macmillan, 1871, 519. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Photo credit: Anonymous photographer, 2014. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.