How and why did the word tight come to be appropriated in this sense, for example as in, "That car is tight, cuh!" ? I mean, one easily extrapolates from the "normal" definition to understand why slang would appropriate tight to mean "close" — as in "Nah, we cool cuz we tight like that" — but this other sense is significantly opaque to me.
Learn English – the reasoning behind the “urban” slang word “tight” coming to mean “cool/great/slick”
adjectivesetymologyslang
Best Answer
From thefreedictionary.com:
In music it usually means all members of an ensemble are playing together with rhythmic and harmonic precision. I think it's not much of a stretch to work from that meaning to the sense of something being remarkable or "slick".