"DA BOMB"

Yesterday a woman of my generation said, "That's da bomb!" and as if that weren't bad enough, she actually repeated the same phrase later.   Yeah, how one knows that teenage slang is officially passe is when an old person co-opts it!  

Later, in relating the incident to my brother, he quipped, "At least she didn't say AWESOME!" I used the word "neologism" and he said, "Tell me, is neologism also a neologism?" (Neologism:  a newly coined word or expression)

I wondered if the woman thought that saying "da bomb" made her seem young, hip, or cool.  Oh, I know I'm guilty of some slangy usage such as "cool" and "hip",  but those are MY generation!  

Listen to The Who sing My Generation:

I wondered when/where "da bomb" originated because I had not heard any young people of my acquaintance using the term recently.

From Rice University Neologisms Database:

A way to refer to any person, event, or thing which a person finds very cool or enjoyable.  The phrase "the (or da) bomb" became popular in the 1990s. The addition of "dot com" refers to the ending of many websites URL ".com".  The phrase can also be continued by adding "slash awesome" or "slash (enter any other word)", containing the usage of URL reference.

From the Latin "bombus", meaning explosion.  ".Com" is an abbreviation for "commercial" used in some websites' URL.  

From another source:

"An African-American slang phrase that became popular in the 1990s.  "Da" is an informal way to say "the" and "bomb" refers to something very powerful and explosive.  A synonym is "Phat".