Posted in Sapiosexual Where exactly did the slang phrase “digging it” come from June 21, 2025 From EtymOnline:. In 19c. U.S. student slang it meant “study hard, give much time to study” (1827); the 20c. slang sense of “understand” is recorded by 1934 in African-American vernacular. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/471982/where-exactly-did-the-slang-phrase-digging-it-come-from