Meaning
What does Basic mean?
Basic is a slang expression for people, who are uninteresting and unoriginal in their tastes; they are only consuming mainstream popular trends, and have no true personal preferences or tastes in terms of music or art.
A “basic” person is but one of the many; a drop in the ocean of masses.
Origin
What's the origin of Basic?
The slang use of the word “basic” started to emerge in the 1970’s as an expression for people, who were uninteresting and didn’t have any extraordinary about their characters.
The intensity of the phrase started to grow with time, and after a while it started to be used as a synonym for a plain, simple personality.
In the 80’s, the expression started to be used more and more often in relation to women, though at the time the preferred expression for such people was “airhead”.
Spread & Usage
How did Basic spread?
During the 2000’s, the expression “basic bitch” had emerged, which was used for girls, who are only following popular trend and fashion, and look like they are but varieties of the same person.
The phrase had often been used since the 2000’s in hip hop songs, for instance the 2011 song Gucci Gucci by Kreayshawn.
Urban Dictionary has a large amount of definitions on “basic” uploaded by users since 2004.
External resources
- Urban Dictionary – Basic