Where does “wannabe” come from?

Wannabe derives from the English colloquial contraction want to be, first recorded in the 1980s as a noun describing someone who aspires to be like someone else.

wannabe (English): Someone who wishes to be or do something, but...

Definitions

  1. Someone who wishes to be or do something, but...

Ancestry of “wannabe”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Englishwant to be

Words derived from “wannabe

Every word from English want to be