Ebonics Etymology - Flossing

Factual Questions
1

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=flossing

flossing
Showing off; showing what you’ve got.

“And we like to floss /
All my diamonds gloss /
I represent the dirty dirty dirty dirty South.”
–Lil’ Flip

  1. flossing
    Driving thur a neighborhood for the reason to be seen by other people especially the opposite sex (Cruizing)

by Baydog Nov 15, 2004 email it
3. flossing

Verb: The act of chilling in one place for a long period of time, in attempts to attract others’ attention. Most often involves ghetto males attracting hood rats with large amounts of shiny metals (i.e. diamonds, gold, platinum, chrome, etc.).

I can’t see any parallels between cleaning one’s teeth and showing off…any takers?

2

I am not familiar with the usage, so I am not going to claim knowledge.

However, you asked for speculation on the progression of the etymology so:

I suggest you re-open your link, look at definition #4, then read definiton #1 in that light.

3

I had read all of those, but didn’t make the connection…thats a hellova theory.

4

I think TomnDebb’s camel toe synonym origin theory is a red herring; while it makes logical sense to call it that, I have never heard of it referred to as floss or flossing. The Urban dictionary is hardly a definitive source, and camel toe=floss might be a regional thing or just demented ramblings.

Flossing is showing off expensive items, especially jewelry, though it may also be used for clothing or vehicles.

5

Nitpick: “Flossing” is an African-American slang term emerging from hip-hop culture. Ebonics is a formerly regional African-American dialect dating to the antebellum south before spreading throughout the United States during the 40 year period of the Great Migration.

6

The term “Ebonics” is also not generally accepted among linguists. More usually, the terms “Black English” or “African-American Vernacular English” are used. “Ebonics” is a somewhat cutesy, non-technical term. As Askia said, in any case, all these descriptions usually refer to words or grammatical patterns that appeared long ago in black American culture. Words like “flossing” though are more accurately said to have originated recently in hip-hop culture.

7

I would guess it has to do with getting expensive dental work – the whole gold tooth thing. What’s the point in having a mouth full of precious metal and jewelry unless you can show it off?

8

Well, that would be called a grill. I never thought about someone using their grill to floss before, but that’s a very reasonable connection. Perhaps when you literally floss your grill, you’re drawing attention to it, and so the term extended to showing off other shiny expensive things, like sports cars. Just a WAG, but seems plausible.