heffa
noun
a usually neutral and often playful term for a woman
What does heffa mean?
Heffa (sometimes spelled heifer, the traditional word for a young cow) is a usually neutral and often playful term for someone, and especially for a woman.
Examples of heffa
A fan penned, ‘Them tour dates about to drop, lemme get these funds right,’ and another typed, ‘You’re giving me anxiety. How much are the tickets heffa?’
—Carly Johnson, The Daily Mail, 16 May 2024
In her Instagram Story, Zendaya also included blurry selfies with assistant Darnell Appling. In one, the star’s injured finger points upward at the caption, “Baby’s first stitches lol back to never cooking again.” In a playful roast about the situation, Appling captioned his own selfie, “Never a dull moment with @zendaya no pun intended,” adding, “Dear God, help me keep this little heffa safe cause she clumsy as hell.”
—All these heffas dressed like Keke Shepherd from Showtime at the Apollo
—The use of various punctuation marks turns a sentence into a jazz moment where words and ideas get their own solo but also function to create one whole set. Listen to this: They said Ethel Bell went to hell when she died. I don’t know. But I know this: she was one mean heffa, you betta hear what I’m sayin’.
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Where does heffa come from?
The current slang use of heffa/heifer comes from, and is employed primarily in, African American English. In her 1994 book Black Talk: Words and Phrases from the Hood to the Amen Corner, Dr. Geneva Smitherman notes that heifer is “a reference to any female; used by males and females; a fairly neutral term.” Heifer, usually meaning “young cow,” has been used to refer to a woman or a girl at least as far back as the late 1700s both inside and outside of AAE, with different, and often non-neutral connotations. One older usage refers to a sexually promiscuous woman, and there is also an older sense of heffa/heifer specific to AAE used for a woman with dubious morals, or a woman who is considered outright immoral. Contemporary uses of heffa/heifer may sometimes blur a line between being “fairly neutral” and connoting a bit of judgment.
You know I thought I was too cute to be standin around with the rest of those heffas.
—“That’s real. If a broad handles her business, she ain’t got to worry about another heffa doing it for her.”
—Red reserved her anger for her mother, though, especially when she called her heifer.
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How is heffa used?
Though most of the current slang usage may be neutral or playful (and sometimes self-applied), heifer has also been used disparagingly in African American English and in general usage, especially to refer to women considered overweight or unattractive, which is no surprise given the offensiveness of cow when applied to a woman. Heffa/heifer may be considered similar to bitch, a disparaging and offensive term that today has been reclaimed as neutral or even positive in some contexts.
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