Vol. 10 · Portmanteaus ·Late 20th century ·1995
Crunk
crazy drunk
- Meaning
- A bass-heavy Southern US hip-hop subgenre; informally, wild or excited.
- Source words
- crazy + drunk
- Coined by
- Lil Jon (popularised)
- Year
- 1995
Background
Circulating in Atlanta hip-hop from the early 1990s; Lil Jon's 2000s crossover mainstreamed it. Some sources dispute the *crazy + drunk* analysis, suggesting *crunk* is a past participle of *crank* (to crank up).
Late 20th century
Marketing, media, and the early internet. Infomercial, emoticon, workaholic — the coinages name phenomena of mass media and white-collar life. Several predate the decades they're associated with.
Two words, one coinage.
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