Street voices
Janna
·
United States
Just recorded
"It's giving black Basically when something resembles something else so let's say someone's wearing like a yellow orange top Someone else could say and you know resembles like the shade of like mac and cheese orange yellow Someone could say oh, it's giving mac and cheese can be used as a compliment could be used as a roast literally anything An example would be ooh love your striped outfit. It's giving mime"
What it means
Used to say something is serving the vibe of something else, like it resembles or evokes it. You drop a noun after it, and everyone gets the picture fast. It grew out of Black and Latinx ballroom and drag talk, then the internet took it and ran. Depending on your tone, it can be pure hype or low-key shade.
Usage examples
"Your new sunglasses are giving bodega security vibes, deadass. Pull up to brunch in SoHo like that and everyone’s gonna stare."
"Your new oversized sunglasses are giving bodega security guard at three in the morning of the corner store in the East Village of Manhattan, deadass, pull up to the brunch reservation at the place in SoHo on Sunday at noon dressed like that and the entire table of friends from the agency on Lafayette Street is going to stare for the full thirty seconds of the entrance."
"The new Italian restaurant on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens of Brooklyn is giving Lower East Side circa two thousand and seven from the candle-lit interior of the dining room to the natural wine list of the bar at the entrance, the staff in vintage corduroy from the thrift store of the next block, and the seventeen-dollar pasta of the Friday night menu we cannot quite afford on the side rent of the agency salary."
Where it comes from
From the African American Vernacular English construction "it's giving X" (it gives off the energy or feel of X), born in the ballroom culture of Black and Latinx queer New York of the nineteen eighties, where the verb "to give" already named the act of serving a look on the runway competition of the houses. The phrase migrated from ballroom commentary to drag culture, was popularized by RuPaul's Drag Race contestants in the twenty-tens, and exploded across general internet English through TikTok memes of twenty-twenty, where it now serves as the universal one-line judgment on every outfit, brunch spot and Halloween costume of the youth feed.
Editors of this term
Your vote counts
Is this real street talk or have we lost the plot? Cast your vote.