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My bad

Posted by Chris Hopson on August 15, 2007

I just read the explanation of where the phrase "My bad" came from and I believe it's only partially correct. The origin of this phrase actually comes from the card game "Spades". In the game of Spades the object is to win by taking the most "books". A players "bid" on how many books they can take by what cards they hold in their hands. If a play over-bids and takes more books than he or she thought they would, that's called "sandbagging". When a player took extra books by overbidding, the player would say "My bag".

Thus, when the young people heard their mothers and fathers using "My bag" at the card table, the took it to the basketball courts. Therefore, "My bad" derived from "My bag" because of the habit of some young urbanites to clip the phrase by saying "Oh snap! My ba..".