Slang dictionary

nawf

[nawf]

黑料网 does nawf mean?

Nawf is a dialectical pronunciation and spelling of “north,” commonly associated with Black English. The popular rap group Migos to refer to north Atlanta, Georgia as the Nawf.

Related words

boujee, Confederate flag, trap music, phat ass, thicc, gots, holler, 辫辞辫辫颈苍鈥�, yes ma'am, swalla

Where does nawf come from?

Wonderopolis

North, of course, is one of the four cardinal directions. In some dialects of English, including Southern English and Black English, north is pronounced like norf, a common feature of those overlapping dialects to treat听th sounds as an f or v.

Nawf听doesn’t emerge online until 1998, in a Texan Usenet group in which a user proudly referred to north Houston as nawfside (northside). In an Irish Usenet group, however,听苍补飞蹿听was used to mock a Southern US accent.

Nawf began to spread in popular culture thanks to hip-hop, ever partial to spelling words as they are pronounced (e.g., mouf for mouth). Rapper Slim Thug used听nawf to refer to the same north Houston, Texas neighborhood in Chamillionare’s听2004 song, “Still Tippin’ 2.” Into the 2000s,听苍补飞蹿听was occasionally used for various northerly locations by social media users from the American South.

Nawf takes off in popular culture thanks hip-hop trio Migos’ 2016 hit song “Bad and Boujee.”听In the song, the rappers boast are from the Nawf, or north Atlanta, specifically the city of Lawrenceville in Gwinnett County. Although “Bad and Boujee” gave nawf national attention, Migos had favored the term since at least 2012.

Examples of nawf

We from the Nawf, yeah, dat way (nawf)
Migos, "Bad and Boujee" (song), August 2016
CoolChaser  
Migos hails from Gwinnett County, Georgia, which, because of its wealthy white suburbs outside the perimeter, isn鈥檛 regarded as Atlanta proper. Migos haven鈥檛 shied away from that fact. But before they鈥檇 put the Nawf on the map, in their parlance, Migos first took cues from in town.
Christina Lee, Rolling Stone, September 2017
Y鈥檃ll Stop Eating That Fake LOTUS , The Real LOTUS is on the NAWF side 馃挴馃挴
@kenteriouss, October 2018
SEE MORE EXAMPLES

Who uses nawf?

After Migos’ success, other residents of Gwinnet County (and the greater north Atlanta area) took to using the听Nawf听to rep their home.

Nawf is also used to refer to northern sections of cities, especially in the South or to the northerly directions more generally. It’s especially associated with colloquial black speech and writing. It may be considered appropriative for non-black people to adopt it.

It’s important to note that pronouncing north as nawf isn’t due to ignorance but is consistent with the complex grammar of Black English.

Just Added

recession brunette, cutty, brainrot, Midwest nice, brat

Note

This is not meant to be a formal definition of nawf like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of nawf that will help our users expand their word mastery.

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