valley girl
noun · first attested 1982
A father recorded his fourteen-year-old daughter imitating her classmates, and a suburb north of Hollywood ended up naming a manner of speech.
A young woman from the affluent suburbs of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, or anyone who talks and dresses like one.
San Fernando Valley·United States
34.1558°N -118.2878°W · Q816843
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1982
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
San Fernando Valley
- In English
valley girl
Frank Zappa's 1982 single Valley Girl featured his daughter Moon Unit improvising the slang of girls at the Sherman Oaks Galleria in the San Fernando Valley. The record was a hit and within a year newspapers and dictionaries were discussing Valley girls and Valspeak. The Valley is not a separate town but a large suburban basin inside the Los Angeles city limits, north of the Santa Monica Mountains.