Freaky, get your freak on

Posted by ESC September 11, 2003In reply to Freaky Friday (movie) posted by sphinx on September 10, 2003

How is freaky? And what about "get your freak on" in the poster?

FREAK/FREAKY - There are several entries for "freak" and its variations in a book on teen-age slang. "Freak" is first listed under College Slang Circa 1900 as meaning "someone who is exceptionally proficient in a given area." During The Hippie Counterculture, "freak" or "freek" came to mean a hippie, a devotee of something or, as a verb, to lose control. "Freaky" is listed twice: The Mainstream 1960s (crazy) and The Hippie Counterculture (bizarre, weird). "Flappers to Rappers: American Youth Slang" by Tom Dalzell (Merriam-Webster, Springfield, Mass., 1996).

This book doesn't have "get your freak on." But in a movie, "Barbershop" (about a barbershop in a black neighborhood), it was used to mean have sex. At least that's how I understood it. But it could have meant "do whatever makes you happy." The conversation was about Martin Luther King's affairs. One character said, in light of that history, MLK Day should be celebrated by "getting your freak on."