setting a Guinness World Record for the "Largest Diamond Pendant" which read, "Crunk Ain't Dead."The folks at Webster's Dictionary seem to agree with the southern rapper. The word "crunk" has been added to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Here's how the dictionary defines it:
Main Entry:
- crunk
- Function:
- noun
- Etymology:
- crunk, word of fluctuating meaning used during the 1990s in lyrics of the rap groups OutKast and Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz
- Date:
- 2000
: a style of Southern rap music featuring repetitive chants and rapid dance rhythms
There are some discrepancies over at Urbandictionary.com about what crunk really means. You gotta love that site. Anyone can be a linguist.
Here are some of the entries from Urbandictionary.com:
ENTRY 1
its a mixture of the word crazy and drunk
i wanna go to a party and get crunk
ENTRY 4
Originally coined by Dr. Suess in 1972, in his book "Marvin K. Mooney will you please go now!".
"You can go in a Crunk-car if you wish."
ENTRY 61. To get Crunk is to have a good time.
2. Crunk is also thought to be derived from a combination or a portmanteau of the words "crazy" and "drunk", or a combination of "chronic" and "drunk", referring to the state of being both drunk from alcohol and high on marijuana, at the same time.
3. A style of music most commonly made by rap artists from the southern states, aka the Dirty South. Some crunk artists (or groups) are Lil' Jon, Pitbull, Lil' Scrappy, Trillville, and David Banner.
4. Something at a high level, as in volume.
ENTRY 7
Everybody here is wrong, it is not getting crazy and drunk. It's smoking chronic (marijuana) and getting drunk.
Chronic + Drunk = CRUNK
Other words added to Merriam-Webster include "smackdown" (that's a good one), "telenovela" and "ginormous."
Who the hell says ginormous?
Comments: (20)
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By: Lorraine Elijah Brown on 7/11/2007 9:21PM
With the use of the computer, who need a dictionary? That's what happen when the sells are not great. Now, it is time for Webster Dictionary to add a little rapping word to the Dictionary. It's cool--for rappers.
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By: malachi on 7/11/2007 11:02PM
far as i know, lil jon is the only one making "crunk" music. many islanders perform "dancehall" reggae, yet that doesnt make the cut. doesnt make much sense
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By: mad on 7/12/2007 2:23AM
WHEN DID IT BECOME NEWS-WORTHY TO LET WHITE AMERICA KNOW THE DEFINITION OF STREET SLANG? TWENTY PLUS YEARS AGO THAT'S WHY WE USED SLANG. SO WE COULD SPEAK IN A LANGUAGE NOT EASILY UNDERSTOOD BY THE MASSES. I LIKED IT BETTER WHEN YOU HAD TO EXPLAIN TO YOUR PARENTS THAT WHEN YOU SAID "THAT'S DOPE" YOU WEREN'T TALKING ABOUT COCAINE.
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By: YUP YUP on 7/12/2007 7:17AM
i DEFINETLY FEEL U, Mad!!! WE HAD OUR OWN THING, JUST FOR US, NOW IT'S BEING CAPATALIZED ON SO MUCH IT'S DISGUSTING!!
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By: www.jumpoff.tv on 7/12/2007 11:14PM
strategic marketing move if i ever saw one. but out of all the hip hop slang, why crunk.
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By: Lori on 7/12/2007 9:22AM
I use ginormous all the time...yep, just another lil black girl from Compton :o) I agree that we are allowing too much of our culture to cross over to the masses and be twisted to defame us...shakes head
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By: tasha on 7/12/2007 4:20PM
I think we should all take a deep breath and calm down. Crunk should be in the dictionary, actually. The word describes a type of music and segment of popular culture. If you object to the word crunk being included in Webster's, then by the same logic, you should object to the inclusion of the word hip-hop in the dictionary. Even "grunge" has a few more definitions added to it because of early 1990's bands and the mode they helped create. What about the word "flapper," as in flapper girls of the 1920's, or beatnik, or hippie. These were all slang terms at one point and time, but are now terms used to refer to a specific style or era. The English language is in a constant state of flux, and for better or worse Webster's Dictionary needs to keep up.
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By: Amanda on 7/13/2007 8:32AM
Kudos to Tasha. Every sub culture has its own slang terms, not just hip hop. If you don't like the fact that main stream culture now knows the word be creative and come up with something else.
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By: kevin riggs on 7/13/2007 9:15AM
Hey, i say first off that we should just reconize the fact that we do have black power, that a brother actually could change history and history books, something that the white man is affraid of us doing and tries to prevent. It is cool to speak slang for our culture sake, keeping identiy making others figure it out, but just like "grunge", it has become a style of music. And therfore should be added, just like all other styles. They did it to "funk", so why not the "crunk". Some people (particularly white, not being racist though, just based on statistics when we use slang and not "proper europen style grammar")may see this as allowing words that really aren't words, but slang in the dictionary. Hey, its 2007, every year new words are added, and made. ANything that exist should be in the dictionary, crunk exist, it can be defined, so why not have it, its not slang to me. "dope" seems more slang, cause it has a two sided meaning, coming first from the drug. Using a "bad word" in a different "good way". Like Run-DMC said in Peter Piper "not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good". Crunk is what it is, thogh a combination of two words in a sense. We have "punk" to "funk" now we have the "crunk"
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By: Tammy Murphy on 7/13/2007 12:58PM
I AGREE THAT THE BEST MEANING IS A CROSS BETWEEN CHRONIC AND DRUNK.
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