Thicc

About

Thicc is a slang term used to describe the voluptuous, hourglass-like curvature of a woman’s hips. Online, the term has seen widespread usage as a descriptor for images of bootylicious women, in the same vein of the slang expression “dat ass”, and a popular subject of parody images featuring fictional characters from various media franchises.

Origin

The term “thicc,” derived from the English adjective “thick,” first came into colloquial usage among urban youths as part of the African American Vernacular English in the early 2000s. Online, the earliest known mention of the word can be found on an Angelfire-hosted webpage^[15] dedicated to more than a dozen of hip hop artists of that era and created on November 4th, 2004.

Spread

Over the course of the next decade, the slang term continued to gain traction in American pop culture and online hip hop communities as recording artists began incorporating the term into the lyrics and titles of their songs, not to mention its usage in the comments section of porn sites. By mid-2015, “thicc” had garnered a humorous connotation as some internet users began using the word ironically on Twitter,^[11]Tumblr^[9] and iFunny.^[12] On October 13th, 2015, Urban Dictionary user thiccbitchrivermonster submitted the earliest known definition of the word^[5]

On October 22nd, 2015, Twitter user miliondollameat shared a picture of the cartoon character Bubble Bass from Nickelodeon’s animated TV series Spongebob Squarepants with the caption describing him as “lowkey thicc.” The tweet accrued more than 3,200 retweets and 4,200 likes in the following months.^[6] On November 21st, Internet blogger and music critic Anthony Fantano uploaded a video of himself making a vegan smoothie, gaining over 50,000 views in the following months.

On January 8th, 2016, Twitter user larcenous posted a picture of himself with his head against the padding of a couch that resembles the outline of a curvy woman’s hips and the caption that reads “my girl stupid thicc.” The tweet gained over 12,400 retweets and 21,500 likes in six months.^[7] On April 26th, Youtuber Pyrocynical uploaded a video titled “Thicc Souls III”, featuring MOD gameplay footage of Dark Souls III with a full-figured character, which drew close to a million views in less than two months. On April 27th, Redditor flashsasu submitted a question asking for the meaning of “thicc” to the /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit.^[10]

T H I C K

On 4chan’s /v/ (video games) board, the term has become associated with a comic poking fun at the BBW (Big Black Woman) lovers who would flood the weekly “Thick Thursday” porn threads with images of chubby video game characters, with the earliest archived instance dating back to November 9th, 2015.^[1]

In the following months, several characters from the comics started being used as reaction images for chubby girls, mainly one with a smiling character touching his face with both hands (shown below, left)^[2] and another with an agonising character asking for the character to be “thicker” (shown below, middle),^[3] being used as explotables and inspiring several variations (shown below, right).^[4]^[13]