Bling-bling (or simply bling) is a slang term in hip hop culture referring to flashy or elaborate jewelry and ornamented accessories that are carried, worn, or installed, such as cell phones or tooth caps.

Origins and popularization of the term

In linguistic terms, bling is an ideophone intended to evoke the "sound" of light hitting silver, platinum, or diamonds. It is not onomatopoeia, because the act of jewelry shining does not make a sound. The form bling-bling is a case of reduplication. The origins of the term are disputed and claimed by various artists.

Coinage of the term bling, which came into use in the late 1990s, is often attributed to rap artists B.G. and Cash Money Millionaires. It was used in a song title by Cash Money Records rapper B.G., and in 1998 by fellow Cash Money artist Lil Wayne on the track "Millionaire Dream". ("I got ten around my neck, and baguettes on my wrist, Bling!"), which appeared on the Big Tymers album How Ya Luv That. "Bling Bling", a track from the 1999 B.G. album Chopper City in the Ghetto, further popularized the term. On OutKast's song "Hollywood Divorce", Lil Wayne states, "Bling bling, I know and did you know I'm the creator of the term." On the song "Money Ain't a Thang" by Jermaine Dupri, Dupri uses the term gleam gleam in a similar fashion as bling bling.

Though B.G. and other hip hop artists are often given credit for creating the term, television commercials for dental products and chewing gum as early as the 1970s accentuated the cleanliness of teeth with a "bling" or "pling" sound, accompanied by an imaginary starburst or ray of light emanating from an actor's mouth. During the early 1980s, toothpaste maker Ultra Brite ran a series of commercials stating, "Ultrabrite gives your mouth...1...sex appeal!" Before the words "sex appeal", a bell sound was heard as a young man smiled while kisses were blown at him. During the 1980s and early 1990s, comedians such as Martin Lawrence parodied the "Ultrabrite smile" by vocalizing the sound effect as "bling". The term was used in this way to describe a gaudy piece of jewelry, for example the otherwise rotten gold-toothed smile and stereotypical pimp jewelry of the character "Jerome" on the television series Martin.

While the specific term bling was first popularized in the hip hop community, it has spread beyond hip hop culture and into mass culture. It was added to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary in 2002 and to the Merriam Webster dictionary in 2006. Companies such as Sprint and Cadillac have used the word bling in their advertisements. During a 2008 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day parade in Jacksonville, Florida, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney admired a baby decked in dress attire with gold jewelry and said, "Oh, you've got some bling-bling here." In 2004, MTV released a satirical cartoon showing the term being used first by a rapper and then by several progressively less "streetwise" characters, concluding with a middle-aged white woman describing her earrings to her elderly mother.Fact: date=April 2007 It ended with the statement, "RIP bling-bling 1997-2004." In 2005, the rapper B.G. remarked that he "just wished that he'd trademarked it" so that he could have profited from its use.