Tanya Ballard Brown, “People Be Triflin’, From ‘Bills, Bills, Bills’ To The Bible” (NPR’s Code Switch blog, Sept. 28, 2014)
Ben Zimmer, the executive producer of vocabulary.com and language columnist for The Wall Street Journal, pointed me to the Dictionary of American Regional English, which tells us the word is chiefly used today in the South and Midland regions. And he explained via email that “there are a few interrelated meanings in Southern and African-American dialects: ‘lazy, shiftless, worthless’ (from 1832), ‘tired, draggy, under the weather’ (from 1887), and ‘sexually promiscuous’ (from 1924). That last sense has frequently been used in blues lyrics for untrustworthy members of the opposite sex.”
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