Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a derog. term for a black person.

1966–8

in DARE questionaire.

(US) the game of craps.

1918		letter in Wellsboro (PA) Agitator 11 Sept. 2/2: The other day I saw a couple of Doughboys [...] playing African billiards. You savvy African billiards? In plain every day English it’s shooting craps.
1922		Wash. Post 25 July 2/3: ‘Baby needs shoes,’ ‘little Joe,’ ‘snake eyes’ and ‘let it lay, I shoots the works’ does not necessarily indicate that the D.C. code is being fractured by the running of a game of African billiards, according to Attorney Royal A. Hughes.
1931		N.Y. Times Mag. 4 Jan. 12/4: In the center of the room stand two billiard tables, a croupier at the head of each. One is given over to a pastime described as African billiards or golf, the other to that deadly game of picquet.

(drugs) marijuana.

1970		R. Gilmore Drug Education Hbk.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 301: Moroccan Hash, Red Lebanese, Black Afghani [...] Black African, African black — Marijuana.
1982		R. De Sola Crime Dict.

(drugs) cannabis.

1979		H. Joel Jargon.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 1: African bush — Marijuana.

(US) craps dice.

1922		(con. 1917-18) 71st New York in the World War 143: I had drawn two months’ pay and won some money rolling the African Dominoes, so was flus.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 1/2: African bones, dice.
1943		T. Thursday ‘Romeo’s Juliet’ in Sports Fiction Fall 🌐 In our spare time we boys get together and play a little African cubanola.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1961		J. Scarne Complete Guide to Gambling 239: Craps is of American Negro origin [...] dice are often still called ‘African dominoes’.
1979		Maledicta III:2 167: African dominoes n [DAS 1901] Dice, craps; so called because Negroes were instrumental in spreading the game north from New Orleans where it was introduced by the French.
2004		‘Animated Dominoes, Dice’ at Old and Sold 🌐 Some crap-shooting terms fade but a few have proved durable: African dominoes [...] dice.

(US) gold.

1979

Maledicta III:2 167: African dust n Gold; from the mining of gold in Africa.

(US) the game of craps; thus African golfer, a crap-shooter.

1917		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 15 Nov. [synd. col.] ‘I is jest wonderin if over in Yurrup there will be any chance for us niggahs to play any African golf?’ [...] African golf in the vernacular is shooting craps.
1917		Amer. Flint IX 43/1: Billy Klein is here trying to show the boys how to play African golf, but the boys can handle them [i.e. dice] just as good as Willie can.
1918		A.C. Huber Diary of a Doughboy 7 May 🌐 Spent the evening watching the boys play ‘African Golf’.
1920		Capt. Billy’s Whiz Bang Oct. 24: One of the favorite sports of the naughty doughboy is the game known as African golf. Two galloping dominoes are used in place of a small ball.
1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 5/1: African golf – Seven come ’leven.
1930		N.Y. Age 13 Dec. 6/1: ‘African golf is not merely an American slang expression for dice, for golf actually exists in Africa’.
1940		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 27 Jan. 7/1: If you think George Williams, the ebony faced comic, is funny, get him in an African golf game.
1943		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 4 Sept. 20/1: Clarence Moore [...] is about 18 grands poorer after one of those lengthy ‘golf’ sessions with Bill Robinson.
1948		Mencken Amer. Lang. Supplement II 755: [note] The [...] vocabulary of golf [...] has also engendered African golf, crap-shooting, and barnyard golf, horseshoe-pitching.
1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 9: Chappie you lay dead here we are going inside and make with some African golf and if the nabbers are in existence come on with the shout ‘Cool off the nabbers are about’.
1979		Maledicta III:2 167: African golf n [DAS 1901] Dice, craps.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 80: [These] are unlikely to have been originated by African American speakers – for example, [...] African golf for ‘the game of craps’.
2004		‘Animated Dominoes, Dice’ at Old and Sold 🌐 Some crap-shooting terms fade but a few have proved durable: African golfer, wangler: crap shooter.

1. (US) a die; usu. in pl.

1920		R. Lardner Big Town 75: He [...] pulls a pair of African golf balls out of a drawer in his desk. ‘These dice is real ivory and they cost me twelve and a half berries.’.
1928		Locomotive Engineers’ Jrnl 62 279: In my Ford imitation of an African golf ball (roll, rattle and shake),.

2. (US black) a watermelon.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 227: African golf ball [...] Ironic reference to watermelon.

(US black) a watermelon.

1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 227: African grape Ironic reference to watermelon.
1992		R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton 25: The only thing I could find in the house to eat was this African grape.

(US) a banjo.

1935

Charleston (WV) Daily Mail 27 June 8/8: I knew a ‘snake charmer’ is an oboe, a ‘wood pile’ a xylophone, ‘phone booth’ a bass fiddle and ‘African harp’ a banjo.

Guinness stout.

1999

Scott’s Web Page 29 July 🌐 Mid stage, the glass washer grumbles away, gently spraying Tony The Web Wizard while he stares gloomily into his African lager.

see African n. (1)

(orig. S.Afr.) unpunctuality, flexible time, a general disregard for time-keeping.

1963		K. Mackenzie Dragon to Kill 32: Two-fifteen African time means four o’clock.
1973		M. Asante Transracial Communication 31: Black Americans are familiar with the many ‘African People’s Time’ jokes. But to say that blacks have a traditionally ‘hang-loose’ attitude toward time is not to make a judgment. [Ibid.] 33: The blacks who arived late made no effort to apologize; they had simply been operating on ‘A.P.’ (African People’s) time.
1983		(con. 1939) G. Butler Bursting World 103: I found myself on the receiving end of [...] African time. Five p.m. meant five p.m. for only one of us, me.
2001		C. Welch Star Trib. (Tanzania) n.p.: As I sat waiting for Edward Mgeni to show up for dinner at his home, I thought about the difference between African time and mzungu time. There was a clock on the wall. It was nearly 8 p.m. He was an hour late. That I noticed, and that I couldn’t stop myself from noticing, is because I am a mzungu. Mzungu is Swahili for white.
2001		Ibike Tours 22 Aug. 🌐 Of course the ferry didn’t leave at 9. Funny, but the locals also call time here ‘African time.’.

(US) a craps die; usu. in pl.

1975

(con. 1917–19) oral testimony in Lighter HDAS I.

(US black) a watermelon.

1973

Andrews & Owens Black Lang. 96: African plum – Watermelon.

(US) the game of craps.

1919

Camp Knox News 25 Oct. 2: Four hours African pool. Six hours with Hoyle [HDAS].

(gay) a black homosexual male.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1973		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 3: The head of the black homosexuals on campus is called the African queen.
1979		Maledicta III:2 236: Conservative homosexuals use it pejoratively: dizzy queen, rubber queen, and dinge queen (which is ambiguous, meaning either a black or African Queen, schwartze or Schwartze del Destino, etc., or a white person who likes dark meat).

(US drugs) khat.

2003

Microgram Bulletin XXXVI:7 158: Khat (Catha edulis) — also known as African salad, bushman’s tea, gat, kat, miraa, qat, chat, tohai, and tschat — is a flowering shrub native to northeast Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

(US) a giraffe.

1978

H. Evangeline Daisy 155: Just beyond the lion, the African skyscraper, the giraffe, stalked about eating the leaves from the tall trees,.

(US) venereal disease.

1953		J.H. O’Hara Rage to Live 162: How would I get an African toothache when the closest I been to a quiff in over a month is sitting next to one.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases 12: african toothache (Sl.) Any kind of Venereal Disease.

(drugs) marijuana cigarette.

1980		S. McConville ‘Prison Language’ in Michaels & Ricks (1980) 525: Cannabis indica [...] might be smoked in an African Woodbine, drag, reefer, stick, or sausage.
2002		posting at b3ta.com 🌐 I can’t go nowhere as some bastards ‘nailed’ my car tyres (which was harsh as I was going to the apherisis clinic) and the only way to cheer up was to smoke an african woodbine and jolly myself up.
2002		(ref. to late 1940s) Jazz at Ronnie Scott’s 134 🌐 The Fygges sunk endless pints of bitter (or cider – John Merrydown, a favourite), the modernists electing for the quaintly named ‘naughty-type African Woodbine.’.
2004		(ref. to 1974) Greg Phillips interview at www3.sympatico.ca 🌐 We drove up in his Roller, with his lovely chauffeur Eddie and there was lots of African Woodbine flying around, much to the distaste of Tony Calder, who was with us.