Square (slang) - Negative Connotations

Negative Connotations

In the parlance of jazz, a square was a person who failed to appreciate the medium, more broadly someone who was out of date or out of touch, hence the saying "be there or be square". In the counterculture movements that started in the 1940s and took momentum in the 1960s a "square" referred to someone who clung to repressive, traditional, stereotypical, one-sided, or "in the box" ways of thinking. The term was used by hipsters in the 1940s, beatniks in the 1950s, hippies in the 1960s, yippies in the 1970s, and other individuals who took part in the movements which emerged to contest the more conservative national, political, religious, philosophical, musical and social trends. It comes from the square representing a four-beat rhythm as shown by a conductor's hands. It was in this context that Sly and the Family Stone's trumpet player Cynthia Robinson yelled out in the hit "Dance to the Music": "All the squares go home!" If the counterculture was a shift from conservatism to liberalism, then square was what liberal people called conservative people and things. While the term waned in popularity by the 1980s, it remained in the public consciousness, particularly of the American baby boom generation, enough that its broad meaning (of a person who respects traditional principles) is exemplified in Huey Lewis's 1986 hit Hip To Be Square.

The term found its way into various parts of popular culture. Perhaps the most obvious recurring reference today would be this line from "Jailhouse Rock", a song most famously sung by Elvis Presley:

The warden said hey buddy don't you be no square

If you can't find a partner use a wooden chair

One of the earliest records with the usage of the term can be found in the 1946 recording by Harry Gibson "What's his Story?," which includes the stanza:

At the gate stands a sinning fool

Shouting "Lordy Lordy"

Saint Peter said "You square,

Your place is way down there"

And the square said, "What's his story?"

Or an earlier song by the same artist, from 1944, called "Stop That Dancing Up There," which includes:

The people downstairs

Say I'm an awful square

When I shout, "Stop that dancing up there."

Moreover, in Quentin Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction, Mrs. Mia Wallace calls Vincent Vega a 'square' for not going along in her plans. She draws a box in the air with her finger, which becomes visible to the viewer as a square.