To Follow the Action: A Player's Glossary

To make her subject more understandable for "straights," Anthropologist Milner has compiled a special glossary. Excerpts:

Boss player. An upwardly mobile hustler who never uses his black skin as an excuse for failure.

Bottom woman. A pimp's key employee.

Flat-backer. A prostitute who serves many customers; a volume dealer.

Git-down time. The hour a prostitute is due on the street to begin work.

Gorilla pimp. A user of strong-arm tactics to get and keep prostitutes.

Hard mack. A dedicated, thoroughly professional pimp.

High-sidin'. Showing off, bragging, strutting.

Jam. Cocaine, the pimp's favorite drug.

To have one's nose open. A metaphor of sexual passion: "She had his nose so wide open he was pawin' at the ground."

Outlaw. A prostitute without a proper pimp.

To pimp. To use any human relationship to get money: "That child been pimpin' off his mother since he was three years old."

Pimped down. Dressed in the pimp's finery.

To pull. To win or "catch" a whore from another pimp.

To pull one's coat to. To teach. A novice pimp learning from a master expresses his gratitude by saying, "Thanks for pulling my coat to it, brother."

Sting. A sizable amount of hustled money: at least $500.

Sweet mack. A sugar pimp, one who is educated, charming and nonviolent.