CAP

/kap/

Verb; Noun

The act of lying, exaggerating or bragging; a false statement or lie

WHAT IS “CAP”

ORIGIN

The slang phrases “no cap” or “cap” were derived from the African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and can be traced back to as early as the 1900s, according to Dictionary.com.

Similarly, according to Kelly Elizabeth Wright, an assistant professor language sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (via TODAY.com), the words “cap” or “capping” came from Black communities in the 1940s. These slang words popularly used today have been used to reference bragging, exaggerating, or lying about something.

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According to Wright, “no cap” could replace “for real,” a phrase used by mostly millennials and Gen Xers.

EXAMPLES

“He told me this shirt looked good on me. I am pretty sure he was capping.”

“No way you just casually met Ariana Grande at the mall—that’s cap.”