What Does OG Mean? Original Gangster, and Everything Since

To be an OG person means you came first, and for that, you have gotten yourself some respect, which could apply to the founder of a band, an experienced athlete, or your mate who is the first to do it.

The term OG can also apply to objects. The OG model of a shoe is its first color way. The OG recipe is the one that no one has improved yet. In football, however, OG means something different.

The Short Version:

Question	Answer
Stands for	Original Gangster
What it means now	The original, the first, the one who’s been there longest
Tone	Respectful, usually a compliment
Where it came from	Los Angeles gang culture in the early 1970s
What made it mainstream	An Ice-T album released in 1991
For things	The first or original version of something
In football stats	Own goal, which is not a compliment

What Does OG Stand For?:

OG. Two letters, and only one has any significance left.

The gangster side is long gone. If you call a cook an OG, you’re not thinking about criminal history. All that remains is the “original” side: first, fundamental, the one that came before all the rest.

So what does OG mean when you strip it back?  Seniority and respect. Early arrival isn’t enough. An OG has early arrival that matters.

Where Did OG Come From?:

This word was coined by the Crips in Los Angeles in the early 1970s.

Later, two former members wrote an essay about the origin of this word, and their explanation is what many dictionaries give today. It came from the gang itself and was initially related to “we were here first.” The gang members used those letters to show the part of the gang to which they belonged; for instance, OG Eastside was written by an Original Eastside Crip.

As the gang evolved during the 1970s, the meaning changed; an OG ceased to be connected to which subset of the gang someone belonged to and became an indication of someone who stood there for long and whom the youngers looked up to. The rival gangs adopted this term as well, which means that it was bound to become widely used soon enough.

This word is of African American origin, and it became popular similarly to many other such words through music.

How Ice-T Made It Mainstream:

The genre of rap spread the expression outside of Los Angeles into the ’80s. The right time came in May 1991 when Ice-T launched his album O.G. Original Gangster, with one song by the same name which became number seven in Billboard’s rap chart.

No, he didn’t create it, but dictionaries are quite precise on this. What the record did was introduce the expression to an American public unaware of its existence with its own definition.

It became more liberal quite quickly. In a couple of years, people used it for any person with authority and reputation, regardless of gang connections.

How People Use OG Today:

The word does slightly different jobs depending on where you find it.

Context	What OG Means	Example
About a person	A veteran, someone respected for being early	The OG of the neighborhood barbershop
About a product	The first version, before revisions	The OG iPod, with the click wheel
In gaming	A long-time player, or an early item	OG skins from the first season
In sneakers	The original colorway of a shoe	An OG Air Jordan 1
In music	An artist who shaped the genre	One of hip-hop’s OGs
In a friend group	The one who started the thing	She’s the OG of our running club

It is also used as an adjective without a noun. Referring to a recipe or hairstyle as OG basically implies that it is the original one and most likely the best one.

What Does OG Mean in Gaming?:

It is used in relation to either a veteran player or an item from the early days, and it has a status implication.

Fortnite brought the usage into prominence. The players that registered around the time of the 2017 release have unique skins that have never been rereleased since, so the skin itself will prove the date when you joined. Epic Games embraced the idea by introducing nostalgic cosmetics and even creating a whole game mode based on the nostalgia of the early map and weapons.

This is true of all kinds of games. OG account, OG server, OG patch. If there is a game with some nostalgic value, it is sure to feature the term OGs.

Important for parents to know: the popularity of OG accounts resulted in the trading of accounts which usually goes against the game’s terms of service and results in a hacked or stolen account.

What Does OG Mean in Sneakers?:

For sneakers, OG refers to the original shoe released, mostly the original colorways.

Where there are classic shoes released long time ago, the one released for the first time will be called OG, and this will normally be the version that is much wanted by many people. The letters are normally incorporated in the name of the products, which is why there are sneakers with OG in the name.

This could also mean an unworn shoe complete with all its parts, normally referred to as OG all.

OG in Football Means Something Else:

In football, and other sports which face the same scoring dilemma, OG means own goal. It is where a player scores an accidental goal for his opponents by putting the ball into his own net.

It appears in the score table, the game report, and statistics tables – always in brackets following the player’s name. This is the one common usage of these two letters that no one desires.

The context makes it clear right away. In a discussion among a group of people about music, OG is an accolade. In football statistics, it is the opposite.

Other Things OG Can Stand For:

Meaning	Where You’ll See It	Notes
Own goal	Football and hockey stats	The most common non-slang use
Original poster	Forums and Reddit	Usually written OP, and often confused with OG
OG Kush	Cannabis strain names	What the OG stands for is disputed, with Ocean Grown and original gangster both claimed
OG	Esports	A well-known competitive gaming organization
Olive green	Military clothing and surplus	A color designation, as in OG-107
A first name	Sports coverage	Some athletes go by OG as a nickname, so headlines can look confusing

OG vs OP:

These two words keep getting confused even though there is no connection between them.

OG stands for original gangster. OP stands for original poster, referring to the person who starts a thread and is simply a way of referencing someone in a discussion. When posting on Reddit, one can find numerous mentions of “OP said” in the comments section.

In gaming, OP is used as an abbreviation for overpowered when it comes to guns or any other equipment that is excessively powerful.

Is It Okay to Say OG?:

Yes, in common usage. It is thirty years of general English, it is in the dictionaries, and to call someone an OG is complimentary and not a reference to one’s background in organized crime.

But two things should be remembered anyway. First, the word emerged in the Black communities of Los Angeles and in a context of violence; and second, those who used the word at its origin did not use it in a complimentary manner referring to someone’s collection of records. It is always free to know the origins of a word.

The other one is register. OG is informal, it can be used in conversations and in captions and in a friendly e-mail, but not in a formal report where veteran or founding member should be used.

Common Mistakes People Make With OG:

• Treats the gangster definition literally. No one addressing their aunt as an OG is referring to her criminal background.
• Mixes up OG and OP. Original gangster is not related to original poster; OP also refers to overpowered in gaming.
• Forgets football. When writing about a game, OG means an own goal and no compliment to anyone.
• Uses it for something that’s just old. An OG has prestige. Just being first doesn’t give you prestige.
• Uses OG in formal language. When writing a report or cover letter, go for veteran or founder.
• Thinks Ice-T invented it. He helped make it popular. The term has been in use for about twenty years prior to that album.

OG Trivia:

• Most dictionaries say that the term originated in the early 1970s and comes from an essay authored by two ex-members of the gang.
• Ice-T’s song ranked seventh on the Billboard’s rap singles list and remained there for eleven weeks.
• Other rival gangs adopted the term after it was coined by the original gang – that’s not very common.
• In the video game Fortnite, a skin is sometimes proof of how long you have played it since certain skins were only released once.
• OG in army surplus means olive green and has been used in clothing coding for decades.
• There is a professional esports team called OG, which complicates the search for its slang meaning.

Final Take:

The meaning of OG is original gangster, though the gangster element of this phrase is pretty much gone from memory. The concept that remains is that of being the original and receiving credit for this.

It applies to people, products, songs and shoes, among other things, and is one of the few bits of slang from the 1990s that hasn’t dated. Just note that on a football scores table, it is used to mean own goal, and the named individual would probably prefer if you kept quiet about it.

Frequently Asked Questions:

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