it's giving
STRONG EVIDENCE evidence grade — master store (canonical CSV)
Combined Graph record U-00881 · provenance: canonical master store (CSV), record CTL-W-0481. Master record source: CTL seed 2026-10-16 — UNVERIFIED, verify before public citation.
Dictionary.com slang explainer (dated June 5, 2026, fetched in full): 'it's giving' is 'used to describe everything from a particularly strong energy to a bold look... can be used with or without an object'; it 'originated in Black and Latine LGBTQ+ ballroom culture... developed in New York City during the 1960s and '70s. The term later expanded to the mainstream on social media around 2020 and 2021... sometimes attributed to influencer Raymond "Rolling Ray" Harper, who said it several times on a 2019 episode of Divorce Court... frequently said on RuPaul's Drag Race.' Supports stored gloss 'it evokes, it radiates' and stored era '2020s' as the mainstreaming date.
Answer summary · this record in brief, from its own record text
Dictionary.com slang explainer (dated June 5, 2026, fetched in full): 'it's giving' is 'used to describe everything from a particularly strong energy to a bold look... can be used with or without an object'; it 'originated in Black and Latine LGBTQ+ ballroom culture... developed in New York City during the 1960s and '70s. The term later expanded to the mainstream on social media around 2020 and 2021...
The record
- Work type: phrase
Sources
- https://www.dictionary.com/culture/slang/its-giving (verification source · master store)
Evidence note (master store)
Dictionary.com slang explainer (dated June 5, 2026, fetched in full): 'it's giving' is 'used to describe everything from a particularly strong energy to a bold look... can be used with or without an object'; it 'originated in Black and Latine LGBTQ+ ballroom culture... developed in New York City during the 1960s and '70s. The term later expanded to the mainstream on social media around 2020 and 2021... sometimes attributed to influencer Raymond "Rolling Ray" Harper, who said it several times on a 2019 episode of Divorce Court... frequently said on RuPaul's Drag Race.' Supports stored gloss 'it evokes, it radiates' and stored era '2020s' as the mainstreaming date.
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Record CTL-W-0481 · Combined Graph record U-00881 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 1 source.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.
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Chicago: CultureTechLens. “it's giving (CTL-W-0481).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-w-0481/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). it's giving (CTL-W-0481) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Combined Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-w-0481/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “it's giving (CTL-W-0481).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-w-0481/
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