Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
noun
A style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that was mostly popular within Black Americans of African descent in the mid-1950s to the early 1960s that is best characterized by nonsensical backing vocals with very little to no instrumentation.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To perform music in this style.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a genre (usually a cappella) of Black vocal-harmony music of the 1950s that evolved in New York City from gospel singing; characterized by close four-part harmonies; the name derived from some of the nonsense syllables sung by the backup
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: gospel, gospel singing
History
Coined by DJ Gus Gossert in the 1970s, referring to (mostly) white rock-and-roll groups of the late 1950s and early 1960s. The name is onomatopoeic, representing the nonlexical backing vocals of some songs of the genre.
