phat

Etymology

It is probably a deliberate respelling from English of fat,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} with the kind of unconventional spelling that street slang favours, as in the spelling “boyz”.^[3] The Oxford English Dictionary compares the similar use of large as a term of approval,^[2] and Wilton points out that fat has meant rich or abundant since Old English.^[8] The American Heritage Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary of English call the origin unknown or uncertain,^[9][10] and the Shorter Oxford calls the respelling only a possibility.^[11] Explanations of the word as an acronym ("pretty hips and thighs", "pretty hot and tempting" and the like) are later rationalizations,^[2][3][4] perhaps first offered to women who took offence at the word;^[3] Hendrickson instead suggests emphatic as the source.^[12] The spelling phat had appeared long before, from 1678, as a mistaken form of fat.^[3] A separate printers' word phat, also written fat, is likewise an alteration of fat.^[5][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a general term of approval in Black American slang: 1963, in Time magazine, which listed it with mellow, stone and boss.^[2][4][14] Merriam-Webster also dates the slang sense to 1963,^[5] and Dictionary.com to 1960–65, as an Americanism.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Green's Dictionary of Slang files the 1963 record under its first sense, used of an attractive woman, which campus slang glossaries recorded in 1973 and 1981 as "nice-looking and shapely".^[4] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford also say that the word first described a woman as sexy or attractive,^[10][11] and Etymonline thinks that this sense came first, perhaps in the late 1980s.^[3] From about 1990 it became a general word of praise in hip-hop slang, especially for music: "excellent, cool, fashionable".^[4][3][2] Etymonline dates "great, excellent" to 1992,^[3] and Green's finds "hip, cool, trendy" in a 1990 campus slang list.^[4] The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang quotes it of "phat records" and "phat tracks" around 2000.^[14] Wilton cites it as an example of Black slang adopted by white speakers, and compares the Black slang use of large.^[8] A recent British use is "large, powerful" (2017).^[4]

Timeline

• 1678 – the spelling phat, as an error for fat.^[3]
• 1963 – a slang term of approval, listed in Time magazine.^[2][4][5]
• 1973 – of a woman, attractive, shapely.^[4]
• 1990 – hip, cool, excellent.^[4] Etymonline dates this sense to 1992.^[3]
• 2017 – large, powerful.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (slang) Excellent, first-rate; fashionable or cool, especially of music: a phat bass line.^[9][5][6][2]
2. (slang) Of a woman: sexy, attractive.^[2][11][4]
3. (typesetting) Of copy or type: quick and easy to set, as because of much white space or standing type; the opposite of lean.^[5][13][7]

Noun

1. (typesetting) Copy or type that is quick and easy to set.^[5][13][7]

Verb

1. (typesetting) To keep type standing in the hope of a further order.^[5][13]

Related words

• fat
• large

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Wilton, Dave, Wordorigins.org, wordorigins.org, p. "phat", 31 January 2022
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
13. ^ a b c d Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
14. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge