In the mid-70’s, in grade school in Southern California (Pasadena area), I heard a lot of this one. Both black and white children would use it as an expression of approval or admiration, like during an awards ceremony, screaming out “Hold it, (name of awardee)!!!” Sometimes it was just “Hold it, cuzz!” Often just “Ho’dit!” when said rapidly. I’m sure I heard some young adults (white) use it in a movie theater, too.
Yet, after the 70’s, I could never find anyone using this term, much less understanding it.
Was this a well-known expression at some point? Or was it just an example of an EXTREMELY local and short-lived idiom?
I don’t know, local probably, I was a teenager in the 70s and I don’t remember hearing it. I remember another probably “local” slang from a friend of mine that moved up from WA in the early 70s.
It was “DECent”! (heavy accent on the De, the “cent” part really carefully pronounced sent, almost sant, NOT sint) to mean something that was very very cool. Dumb huh? Yeah, it didn’t really catch on that I remember
Hmm. Tclouie, I love slang with a passion, but I don’t recall this one entirely. I mean, fuzzily, it sounds right to me. But I don’t directly remember it. I grew up on the east coast.
I do remember from hip hop a kind of call and respond slang, “Hoooold up!” and the crowd would respond “Wait a minute!” Do you remember that? I beleive that one started with a Roxanne Shante lyric.
There is also a slang term out now, “Hol’ dat” which is basically telling someone to ‘hold that’…it’s used when you inform someone of something they are just gonna have to handle whether they like to or not. “I told your man that you been cheatin’ on him and he gonna dump yo ass, so you just hol’dat” But that saying is more ingrained in everyday slang speech, as opposed to being a stand out saying.
Anyways, I know this post wasn’t helpful, but I never get a chance to get all slangy at the dope, so I jumped on it.
