When I was in junior high school ('95-'97) a lot of people used this slang expression. When one person mocked or humiliated another with a particularly nasty insult - or even just one-upped another in a string of "good-natured" insults - a third party would pipe in with "BURN!" Other times the individual who delivered the insult would say it as a way of declaring his victory. There was even a specific way of enunciating the word -- it was kind of a long drawn-out "buuuuuurn!"

Anyway. No one says that anymore, do they? And where the hell did it come from in the first place? I read somewhere that That '70s Show popularized it, but I could have sworn that people were using it far more often before that show even debuted. Thoughts?

I remember that was used constantly along with "diss" when I was in elementary school in the late '90s, but it was definitely around before that.

ironically, in the 80s we used to say "aw, man, that's COLD," and it meant pretty much the exact same thing.