The children of the night

Posted by languagehat

https://languagehat.com/how-roll-rolls/

https://languagehat.com/?p=19525

I’ve been saying things like “that’s how I roll” for quite a while now, and it occurred to me to wonder about the history of the phrase. As it happens, there’s a 2013 Stack Exchange post about it; most of the suggested answers are guesswork and contradictory, but there’s one that cites the OED:

The OED says it’s US slang originally in the language of rap and hip-hop. It’s sense VII.36.f. (and sense VII.36.e. is “Let’s roll”), under sense VII:

To move or convey on wheels or rollers, and related senses.

This is their first quotation of the phrase:

1991 ‘Hammer’ & F. Pilate (song title), This is the way we roll.

So I checked the OED, which does indeed have it as sense VII.36.f.:

intransitive. U.S. slang (originally in the language of rap and hip-hop). To act, behave (in a certain way). Frequently in that’s how (also the way) I (we, etc.) roll.

But it’s not clear to me that they’re deriving it directly from the sense “To move or convey on wheels or rollers,” and when I checked Green’s I found 4 (f) “in fig. use, to exist, to conduct one’s life”:

1972 [US] R. Kahn Boys of Summer 297: My younger brother Roy [. . .] had good ability, but he was too hardheaded. He had to roll separate.
2007 [US] UGK ‘Int’l Player’s Anthem’ Baby you been rollin’ solo, time to get down with the team.
2016 [US] T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] ‘We don’t know how Byron rolls’.
2021 [US] J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 237: ‘No heavy petting, Janey. I don’t roll in that direction’.

But there’s also 6 (b) “(US black) to survive, to live, to conduct oneself” (first cite 1988 [US] Ice-T ‘Heartbeat’ Just rollin’ thick as hell, champagne I sip as well); why is that a different sense? And how far back does it date? One of the Stack Exchange commenters says:

I was born in 1968, and my family and community in San Diego regularly used the term “cause that’s just how we roll” and variations. My father, Black and Chippewa, and spoke Spanish, was born in 1916 and was raised in Los Angeles. He was originally from Texas. But the phrase has been around a long long time. I believe it’s from Black slang.

Which makes sense to me; I’m pretty sure it predates hiphop. Anyway, what do y’all think?

https://languagehat.com/how-roll-rolls/

https://languagehat.com/?p=19525