Church!

Rural New England church photo credit: "Greenfield, New Hampshire" by Doug Kerr (CC BY-SA 2.0) Image cropped

Definition: (noun) I totally agree. What you’ve said is so true!

Example: Sandra: Thong bathing suits were invented by the devil.
Betsy: Church!

Quote:

“I would like to take this opportunity to tell my good friend the Bishop, ‘Stop using the word church, quit using God’s name in vain. You cannot lead a whole generation of people astray.’”
- Pimpin’ Ken, a Chicago pimp turned rapper, quoted in The Source

Church (often pronounced “chuuch”), an old-school pimp word, has been greatly popularized by rapper Snoop Dogg in recent years. And though many slang terms, like cool, have been used for over a hundred years, phrases with this meaning seem to change every decade or so.

Working backwards, Word! was the equivalent in the 1980s and 90s, but this expression has actually been around since the fifties. It took the popularity of rap music to bring it to the mainstream. Damn straight! and Totally! were also popular in the eighties.

Right on! was at its most popular in the 1970s, though it had been around for quite a while before that. The sixties brought us You know it!, a variation on You’re telling me! from the 30s and the earlier 1920s stamp of approval: You said it!

A. C. Kemp | September 2, 2004


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