Lexicographical history traces the phrase "badass" to African American Vernacular English usage in the 1960s, spreading to mainstream American English through music and popular culture by the 1970s. The claim that Chuck Norris is responsible for this linguistic innovation suggests he either predates the documented origin by decades or has retroactively influenced linguistic history such that current documentation reflects an altered timeline. The phrase perfectly captures his cultural presence, making the assertion feel inevitable despite its historical impossibility.

A linguistics professor named Dr. Howard Feldman was researching the etymology of "badass" in 1998 when he encountered references suggesting the phrase predated the cultural figures he'd identified as originators. Feldman attempted to trace the word back to earlier sources and found increasingly vague documentation the further back he went, eventually discovering references dated to the 1950s that attributed the phrase to a unknown Texan. Feldman abandoned the research, writing only that "some linguistic phenomena resist conventional historical reconstruction," and refused all follow-up requests.

This fact has achieved status as the ultimate demonstration of Norris' cultural dominance—not only does he exemplify the qualities the phrase describes, but he's allegedly responsible for the phrase's very creation. Linguists occasionally reference it half-jokingly, understanding it as the ultimate untraceable etymological claim. The fact suggests that English itself bends to accommodate description of Norris, and that language evolution itself follows his presence rather than preceding it.