Is the word "minute" drifting?

In the past year, I've started to hear phrases like "I know I've been gone for a minute..." when the speaker is referring to a time period that is significantly longer than 60 seconds (multiple days). That is, they don't even mean a relatively short period of time (unless they compare it to a decade or something).

Is this word drift actually happening? And, if so, where did it start? Is it purposely ironic?

Examples: 1, 2

Solution 1:

This seems like a typical case of understatement. Technically, if you are gone for a day, you were also gone for a minute. People frequently understate or exaggerate things for effect. This doesn't mean that the meaning of the words has changed.

I've been gone for a minute

If the reader/listener knows the speaker was gone for a long time, this statement is merely an acknowledgement of the long delay, which was possibly longer than originally expected.

Wait here a minute

In this case I don't think the listener would ever expect to wait for days. Even an hour would be considered quite long.

Solution 2:

Not a complete answer, but the example you mention (the blog post "I been gone for a minute but Im back again ... ") is:

• clearly ironic in its usage of "a minute" (bloggers always vow to a certain publication schedule, before drifting from it)
• a reference to a song (as one comment said: "Missed hearing the second verse of this song- lol."), like "BABY BASH LYRICS" (or other songs)