meaning - What does "ratchet" mean and when was it first used?


The word ratchet is all over Twitter. Some real examples from just now:





  • "All these ghetto ass ratchet ass girls at mchi are wearing these Santa hats, and they all claim to be Santa..."




  • "I was lookin ratchet in my workout pic but for you to make it a priority to talk about somebody's habit that u be sneakin & geekin to do"




  • "Yaassss finally getting ratchet tonight after being a good girl for a month 🙌"





The @lovihatibot Twitterbot routinely finds it in searches for "I love the word [X]" and "I hate the word [X]", in fact it's the 14th most loved word and 15th most hated word (presumably use in one category feeding the other).


Similarly it's the fifth most common in @favibot's searches for "[X] is my new favorite word".


What does ratchet mean?


Where does it come from and when was it first used?


Was there a single person or event which popularised it, and when was it?


Is it a "good"/positive word, or "bad"/negative, and has this changed in any way?




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