this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2024
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[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Copied from an older comment of mine:

"Based" (corruption of base head - from someone who smokes base - street name for crack cocaine) was popular as an insult in rap / African American circles in the early 00s

Rapper Lil B got called it and decided on a whim to pretend the meaning was changed to mean something positive, started using it in this way, it caught on - mostly through the new York scene and its attendant twitter following

As all slang does in the last ~100-150 years, passed from black people to everyone.

[โ€“] IzzyScissor 6 points 2 months ago

Huh. I thought it originated with "based in reality" or "based in fact" to refer to something that is inherently true.

[โ€“] SassyRamen 5 points 2 months ago

Wow, what an unexpected turn of events! Thanks for the history lesson!