the.com/bling
Wealth that insists on being noticed, preferably from across the room.
means Flashy, expensive-looking jewelry or accessories worn to visibly display wealth or status.
from An onomatopoeic coinage from hip-hop culture in the late 20th century, said to echo the flash of light glinting off diamonds and chrome — or the sound such jewelry might make if it could clink. Popularized by rap lyrics and artists in the 1990s, it entered mainstream dictionaries in the early 2000s, a rare case of slang tracing its birth certificate almost exactly.
- origin
- coined by rapper B.G. in 1999
- etymology
- supposedly mimics light flashing off diamonds
- dictionary status
- entered Oxford English Dictionary in 2003
- economics
- signals status louder than it signals taste