signifyin’

noun/verb – signifyin’ is a form of street poetry used in the african-american community. using a rhyme structure, it often contains a series of taunts or boasts. soemtimes called “playin’ the dozens”.
as spoken by rudy ray moore (aka dolemite):

the signifyin’ monkey

way down in the jungle deep,
the bad -ss lion stepped on the signifyin monkey’s feet.
the monkey said, “m-th-f-cka, can’t you see?
why, you standin on my godd-mn feet!”
the root of the word is “sign”, as in pr-nouncing or interpreting “signs” of the future or important spiritual symbols. this must be related to african or afro-american religious and spiritual practices involving the serious disucssion of divine signs and their meanings.
in a more general sense, if someone is said to be “signifyin””, it may mean that they are taking themselves to seriously by holding forth on deep portentious subjects in a self-important manner.
one might be describing pretentious intellectualizing or over-bearing preaching about matters which should make us humble by their mystery.
when asked to sign a timesheet at work, the manager said, “sure.. in heberew or english ?”
on which a p-ssing co-worker commented, “there he goes signifyin’ again.”
since i happen to be jewish, i know exactly what he meant.