Within a matter of five minutes yesterday I either heard or read the term "bling-bling" twice and both times I wondered what in the world it meant. I've heard it before, but I am hardly the hippest person you'll ever meet. In fact, since I just used the word "hippest," I've pretty much dated myself to the late 70's and early 80's. But that's okay. That's about where I belong.
Anyway, the first time I heard the term "bling-bling" yesterday was in a song called "Desperate for Love" by Over the Rhine. Then I saw it on Suzanne's blog, in this post. Usually I can figure out what terms mean by looking at their context, but context didn't help me in either instance. So, I turned to dictionary.com and here's how they define it: "Jewelry, often gaudy or ostentatious." That didn't help much, so I looked in another dictionary. Here's what it says: "Ostentatious jewelry; more loosely applied to clothing and lifestyle, or a set of modern values that encompass playing hard, looking good and having the best of everything."
Okay, so if I'm understanding this correctly, then people who play hard, look good, and have a lot of stuff are living the bling-bling lifestyle. Yeah, it still doesn't sound right coming out of my mouth. In fact the term sounds like something that might describe an event or a booth at a circus.
"Hey, have you seen Molly?"
"She's over at the bling-bling booth, right behind the big top."
"Thanks!"
