real, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

real adj.

used by a succession of teen generations as an all-embracing term of approbation.

1943		I. Wolfert Tucker’s People (1944) 107: That’s one hell of a real fellow.
1955		S. Allen Bop Fables 37: I’ve fixed up a real wild basket of ribs and a bottle of juice.
1957		S. Selvon Ways of Sunlight 185: My girl is very real. She hated the city, I don’t know why.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 122: ‘I really dig that little chick. I really do. She’s the greatest in my charts.’ ‘Yes, she’s real.’.
1971		Current Sl. V:4 18: Real, adj. Great, enjoyable, incomparable.
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 89: I wanna get hooked up with what’s real.
1997		L. Pettiway Workin’ It 112: Karen was down to earth. Plain and simple. She was real!
2000		Guardian Editor 28 Jan. 10: That type of thinking, where black people equate being down, being real, and being black with just being stupid.
2004		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 5: real – honest, authentic: They like Miranda because she’s real.

In phrases

for real

see separate entries.

get real (v.)

(orig. US) to face facts, to abandon one’s unreal fantasies.

1968–70		Current Sl. III–IV (Cumulation Issue).
1979		Maledicta III:2 222: He is a dizzy queen who doesn’t know when to quit (how to live or when to die) and won’t get real (face facts).
1988		Ice-T ‘Radio Suckers’ 🎵 You better get real, come on.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 129: They think that they can drag Bruce Robertson down? [...] Get fuckin real you sad cunts!
2000		Indep. Rev. 17 Mar. 14: Let’s get real here.

keep it real (v.) (also keep one’s shit real)

to maintain one’s honesty, to stick to one’s roots.

1995		A. Heckerling Clueless [film script] (Scene changes to the bathroom, where Murray is getting his head shaved) dionne: What have you done! Oh, my God! Uh! Why did you do this to your head?! murray: Because I’m keeping it real. Because I’m keeping it real.
1999		J. Ridley Everybody Smokes in Hell 36: They were keepin’ their shit real, that’s what they’d tell you.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 6: I wouldn’t be using poncey words like attain an authenticity, innit. I’d be sayin I couldn’t keep it real or someshit.
2008		Sun. Indep. (S.Afr.) Culture 27 Jan. 11: The movie becomes obsessed with the theme of ‘keeping it real’.
2011		S. Kelman Pigeon English 39: Keep it real, Ghana.
2014		Observer 13 Apr. 17/4: His Twitter handle [...] seems to sum up his mission: keeping it real.

keep-it-real (adj.) [prev.]

honest, dedicated to one’s roots.

1998

Source Nov. 144: A lot of these hardcore, keep-it-real niggas might think it’s commercial.

In exclamations

get real! (also be real!)

(US campus) an admonition to be serious, act maturely.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 96: get real (exclam) stop playing dumb.
1983		R. Price Breaks 256: Here he was telling me to hit the road at sixteen. I mean, get fucking real!
1989		P. Munro Sl. U. 32: John, are you going fishing this weekend? — Be real, Smitty, I have to study for a test.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 18: Get real. I’d rather die than vote for a black man.
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 230: ‘Y’all niggers going to vote for me?’ [...] ‘Get real, dog. I’m from the projects, dog. That vote shit ain’t for niggers like me.’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.
2005		L. Theroux Call of the Weird (2006) 164: Give me a break! Get real!

SE in slang uses

In compounds

real... (n.)

see also under relevant n.

real article (n.)

see real thing, the n.

real A.V. (n.) [ante-Volstead Act]

(US) pre-Prohibition liquor, thus ‘pure’ liquor.

1929

L. Axley ‘“Drunk” Again’ in AS IV:6 440: Some names for intoxicants of various grades and potencies are: real A.V.

real deal

see separate entries.

real-for-sure

see for sure adv.

real lady (n.)

see perfect lady n.

real McCoy, the (n.)

see separate entry.

real Maginnis (n.) [Maginnis whisky]

(Aus.) the genuine article, the ‘real thing’.

1895

‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘The Boss of the Admiral Lynch’ in Man from Snowy River (1902) 124: I tell you those old hidalgos so stately and so polite, / They turn out the real Maginnis when it comes to an uphill fight.

real man (n.)

1. (US prison) a prisoner well respected by his peers.

1962		Bloch & Geis Man, Crime and Society 516: The real man is the prisoner who ‘pulls his own time’ in the phrasing of the inmate population.
1977		L. Bowker Prisoner Subcultures 14: The ‘real man’ never gives in to the administration.
1996		R. Sparks et al. Prisons and the Problem of Order 39: The ‘inmate code’ which elevates the values of the ‘real man’ into a set of nostrums (do your own time, don’t grass or ‘squeal’, show reserved disdain for the guards) [note] The ‘real man’ [...] displays fortitude and manly self-restraint.

2. (US campus) a macho male.

1982

Eble Campus Sl. Fall 4: real-man – stud, macho-man.

real pietro (n.) [? play on stone adv.]

(US) an absolute certainty.

1901

‘Hugh McHugh’ Down the Line 16: Here you are, John Henry, the real Pietro! [...] play Pump Handle straight and place!

real raspberry jam (n.) [var. on bit of raspberry under bit n.¹]

an extremely attractive woman.

1900		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Where To Ask’ Sporting Times 19 May 1/4: For beauty, for genuine raspberry jam— / Well, ask ’em round Flowerydean Street.
1909		(ref. to 1883) J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

real thing

see separate entries.

real-time (adj.) [SE real time, the actual time during which a process or event occurs; i.e. nothing has been faked or otherwise altered]

(US black) honest, candid.

1992

J. Mowry Way Past Cool 78: Maybe I just waitin to hear you say it in that real-time way you got.

real woman (n.)

(US black) a heterosexual woman.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 251: real woman Heterosexual woman.