phat

phat hip-hop slang, "great, excellent," 1992, originating perhaps in the late 1980s and meaning at first "sexiness in a woman." The word itself is presumably a variant of FAT (Cf. fat) (q.v.) in one of its slang senses, with the kind of off-beat spelling preferred in street slang (Cf. boyz). The spelling is attested as far back as 1678, as an erroneous form of fat (a classical over-correction; see PH (Cf. ph)). This spelling is said by some to be an acronym, but various versions are given: "pretty hot and tasty," or "pretty hips and thighs" among them. These, too may have been innovations given as explanations to women who felt insulted by the word.