Buzzwords and Jargon

A GLOSSARY OF WEAPONISED* WORDS, BREXITSPEAK and THE TOXIC TERMINOLOGY OF POPULISM

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In 2018 I began collecting new and controversial language generated by the rise of conservative populism in the US and the UK, by pro- and anti-Trump sentiment in the US and by the divisions resulting from the UK’s Brexit vote. This is still a work in progress: the list of terms as it stands is below. An ideal glossary or lexicon would include detailed definitions and comments (for example, the second word in the list is my own invention, intended to describe a statement, act or policy showing effrontery, and itself a deliberate affront to a section of the population), dates of first use where traceable and a ‘lexical’ categorisation (into ‘jargon’, ‘slang, ‘catchphrase’, cliché, for instance). This more exhaustive treatment is beyond my resources for now, but googling the term in question will throw up examples which may be accompanied by dates and useful commentary.

In January 2024 I began to add words and phrases used by combatants and commentators in connection with the continuing ‘conflict’ in Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. Exactly one year later the ‘coup’, as some described it, enacted in the USA by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, featured new examples of distortion, euphemism and the language of rancour.

***Please do contact me with new examples, with comments and with criticism, which will be gratefully acknowledged and credited.***

Accelerationist

Accommodationist

Administrative detention

Affrontery

Agitators

Airfix patriotism

Alpha

Alt-centre

Alt-right

Amalek

Anglosphere

Annexationist

Anticipatory compliance/obedience

Antifa

Anti-growth coalition

Anywheres

Armed intervention

Asset

Astroturfing

Asylum shopping

Attitudinarian

Australia-style deal

Autohagiography

Backstop

Bad actors

Based

Bed-wetting

Beta

Beyond satire

Bike-shedding

Birtherism

Bitterites

Black hole

Black ops

The Blob

Blowback

Body count

Bot

Both-sidesism

Breadcrumbs

Brectum

Bregressive

Bregret(s)

Bremain

Brengland

Brexiles

Brexit dividend

Brexiteer

Brexit means Brexit

Brexit ultras

Brexmageddon

Brexmas

Brexodus

Brexomertà

Brexpats

Brexshit

Brextension

BRINO

Britain deserves better

Bubble

Butthurt

Cakeism

Calling out

Canada plus plus plus

Cancel culture

Candour deficit

Canzuk union

Casino capitalism

Centrist dad

Cherry-picking

Children of light

Chilling

Chumocracy

Churnalism

Civics

Civilian Security teams

Civility

Classist

Cliff-edge

Clown car

Clown country/state

Clusterbùrach

Coerced migration

Coercive diplomacy

Cognitive elite

Cognitive warfare

Collateral

Collective narcissism

Combative

Combat propaganda operative

Compassion deficit

Competing narratives

Concern(ed)

Concierge class

Confected fury

Conflicting accounts

Consequence culture

Copaganda

Cosmopolitan

Corbynista

Corporatocracy

Coup

Coup Klux Klan

Courtier journalists

Crash out

Cronyvirus

Crowdstrike

Crybaby

Cuck

Culturalism

Cultural marxist

Culturally coherent

Culture warrior

Dark forces

Datagrab

Dead cat strategy

Death cult

Deepfake

Deep state

Defund

DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion)

DEI items

Delegitimizer

Demilitarization

Democide

Deplorables

Detained

DEXEU

‘Dies’

Disappeared

Disaster capitalism

Discourse engineering

Disinformation

Divorce bill

Do-gooder

Dogpile

Dog-whistle

Doom loop

Double down

Doxxing

Drain the swamp

DREAMer

Dumpster fire

Echo-chamber

Economic nationalism

Economically inactive

Educide

Elite

Empty chair

Enablers

Enemies of the people

English exceptionalism

Ergo decedo

Establishment

Ethnics

Ethnonationalist

Ethno-state

Exchange of fire

Expert

Factuality

Fake news

Fall off a cliff

False flag operation

Fash-adjacent

Fashy

Fauxlanthropist

FBPE

Feminazi

Fifth column

Finger-sniffer

Firehosing

Flextension

Flooding the zone

FluTruxKlan

Fractionate

Fratriarchy

Frictionless

Frit

Frontlash

FUD

Gammon

Gammonista

Gangster state

Genocide Joe

Get it done

Getting the barnacles off the boat

Gimmegrant

Girly swot

Global Britain

Globalist

GNU

Grievance studies

Grumpy retiree

Guardianista

Hard Brexit

Hate goblin

Hatriot

Headroom

Headwinds

Henry VIII powers

Heterophobic

High-vis nazis

Hobbit

Homonationalism

Hopepunk

Hose it down

Humanitarian bridge

Hybrid threats

Identitarian

Idiocracy

Illuminati

Incel

Indications

Indicative vote

Individual-1

Intentional explosion

Intifada

Irrational exuberance

Jambon jaunes

Jexodus

Kayfabe

Keirmacht

Kicking the can down the road

Kindercoup

King baby

Kipper

Kipper moment

Kleptofascist

Kompromat

Lamestream media

Lawfare

Leave means leave

Leftwaffe

Legitimate concerns

Lentil-weaving

Lesser mortals

Lethal aid

Level up

Lexit

Libertarian

Libtard

Loss of life

“Lost their lives”

Limited ground operation

Limp-wristed

Little Englander

Lolcow

Londongrad

Londonistan

Long Corbyn

Long coup

Low-energy

Luftwaffle

MAGA

Magic Grandpa

Magic money tree

Majoritarian

Man-baby

Mangina

Manosphere

Manufactured consent

Masculinist

Matrixed

Maybot

Meaningful vote

Meat wave(s)

Mediaeval methods

Melt

Meninist

Mercurial

Metropolitan

Microaggression

Militarised nostalgia

Milkshake(d)

Mindless compassion

Ming vase

Mischievous

Mishap

Missing

Momtifa

Moral clarity

Moral emptiness

Moral grandstanding

MSM

Nakba 2

Nanny state

Nativist

Necrocapitalism

Necropolitics

Neglexit

Neon nazis

Nerd Reich

Neurotic elite

Neutrollization

No-deal

No-platforming

Normie

Nudgism

Obey in advance

Offence archaeology

Operational matter

Operation Red Meat

Operation Save Big Dog

Optics

Ordeals

Ostentatious meekness

Oven-ready

Over-briefed

Overly purist

Overton window

Palaeoconservative

Partygate

Pearl-clutching

Penumbral jobs

People’s vote

Performative allyship

Performative cruelty

Pile on

Political correctness

Political gospel

Polycrisis

Post apocalyptic warlord

Post-liberal

Postmodern

Posttext

Post-truth

Poverty porn

Prebunking

Pre-emptive strike

Price cap

Project Fear

Protesters

Prozac leadership

Pugnacious

Punchy

Purity of arms

Push (BBC euphemism for armed incursion, invasion)

Pushback

Put/stick that on the side of a bus

QAnon

Quitlings

Rabble

Race to the bottom

Rage bait

Rage farming

Rampdown

Red lines

Red pill

Red wall

Regrexit

Rejoiner

Re-leaver

Relocate

Remainiacs

Remain plus

Remigration

Remoanathon

Remoaner

Remove kebab

Replacement theory

Reply deboosting

Reputation laundering

Resistance

Restorative nostalgia

Retconning

Revoker

Roll back

Rootless

Row back

Russian asset

Saboteur

Sadopopulism

Safe space

Scumbag centrism

#ScumMedia

Sealioning

Sensitivity reader

Shadow blocking

Shallowfake

Shill

Shire

Shitposting

Shitshow

Showboating

Shylock

Sick-note culture

Singapore-on-Thames

SJW social justice warrior

Skilling up

Skunked term**

Slave populace

Sleaze

Snowflake

Sobersides

Sockpuppet

Soft border

Soft Brexit

Somewheres

Sovereignty

Soy-boy

Spartan phalanx

Spiv

Star Chamber

Starmergeddon

Stenographer

Sticking point

Strategic self-abasement

Stunning proposal

Sunlit uplands

Supermajority

Surgical strike

Svengali

SWERF

TACO

Taking back control

Tankie

Targeted individual

Targeted strike

Technofeudalism

Tender-age shelter

“Tensions rise”

Terf

Terminability

The other team

Throw under the bus

#tfg, ‘the former guy’

Tick tock

Tigger

Tofu-eating

Tone deaf

Tone policing

Tory scum

Toxic positivity

Transactional

Transition period

Trexit

Triangulation

Tribal(ism)

Trickle-down pathology

Troll farm/factory

Trumpcession

Trump slump

Truth-squadding

Tufton Street

Tu quoque

Two-tier policing

Unconfirmed reports

Unicorns

Unpopulism

Unrest

Unspin

Urban

Values voter

Vassal state

Verbal incontinence

Vice-signalling

Vigilante journalism

Village idiot

Virtue-signalling

Voluntary emigration

Walk back

War cabinet

War of extraordinary civilian casualties (Guardian euphemism for genocide)

Watch-list

Weaponised*

Wedge issues

West(s)plaining

Whataboutery

White supremacist

Will of the people

With a heavy heart

Woke

Woke mind virus

Wokerati

Wokescold

Woketard

Woke warriors

Woke-washing

Womp womp

Workington man

Yoghurt-knitting

Zealot

I’m grateful especially to the many contacts on Twitter who have already contributed to this modest project, particularly Duncan Reynolds @duncanr2, and will credit them all by name/handle when a final version is published.

I’m also very grateful to Rob Booth and the Guardian who, in October 2019, wrote about the glossary and its topicality in increasingly conflicted times:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/05/brexitspeak-brexit-vocabulary-growing-too-fast-public-keep-up

And to Carlos Fresneda for this piece in El Mundo:

https://www.elmundo.es/internacional/2019/10/17/5da765cf21efa0eb618b4680.html

Artist Simon Roberts has kindly shared with me his artworks based on his own lexicon of Brexit language:

Between the Acts, Part II – The Brexit Lexicon

For readers, students, and researchers interested in or working with this topic here are some of the other articles and sources to consider…

In February 2017 The New European published its own very useful lexicon, from which I have drawn, gratefully but without permission :

https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/culture/the-new-lexicon-of-hate-a-disturbing-a-z-of-alt-right-language-1-4894833

And the BBC listed many of the technical – and some less technical – terms associated with Brexit earlier this year:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43470987

Last year Karl McDonald discussed the language used by Labour party leftists in the i newspaper:

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/slugs-melts-inside-language-culture-corbynite-left/

And here’s Helen Lewis in the New Statesman on incivility in the UK:

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/08/how-britain-political-conversation-turned-toxic

And Philip Seargeant on ‘fake news’:

The role of information literacy in the fight against fake news

In November 2018 The Guardian published a useful ‘jargon-buster’ guide to the terms being used at this late stage of (or impasse in, if you prefer) UK-EU negotiations:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/19/brexit-phrasebook-a-guide-to-the-talks-key-terms

Here Renee DiResta describes the ongoing ‘Information War(s)’ of which the manipulation of language is one component:

The Digital Maginot Line

I have only just come across this perceptive essay from 2017, by Otto English on his Pinprick blog, in which he coins the terms Ladybird libertarian and Ronseal academic:

Ladybird Libertarians: Dan Hannan, Paddington and the pernicious impact of 1970s children’s literature on Brexit thinking

In January 2019 James Tapper contributed this very perceptive assessment of Brexit metaphors:

The Many Metaphors of Brexit

And in March, more from the BBC:

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190314-how-brexit-changed-the-english-language

In July 2019 the FT ran an interesting review of Boris Johnson’s press articles as precursors of ‘fake news’:

https://www.ft.com/content/ad141e8a-976d-11e9-9573-ee5cbb98ed36

And in October of the same year David Shariatmadari and Veronika Koller considered Brexit metaphors:

Brexit and the weaponisation of metaphor

*The progressive weaponisation of language is discussed here by Justin Strawhand:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/weaponized-language_b_1380788

In an update from November 2023 New Lines Magazine addressed the distorted, conflicted language employed in describing Israel’s response to Hamas:

https://newlinesmag.com/argument/language-is-a-powerful-weapon-in-the-israel-palestine-conflict/

**’Skunked terms’ are words or expressions undergoing a controversial change in meaning. Examples are ‘liberal’ and ‘libertarian’ which have transitioned from referring to leftist, progressive or centrist positions to denote neo-conservative or alt-right affiliations. Nearly two years on from my original post the useful designation ‘anglosphere’, describing English-speaking nations with shared cultural features, has been co-opted by far-right nativists in the UK to promote a supremacist ideology.

Image result for Brexit graffiti

As a further footnote, this from Twitter in November 2020 (thanks to Alan Pulverness), a reminder that weaponised words may also be frivolous – even puerile:

Image

Looking back to 2016, a prescient tweet by Gary Kasparov:

Image

At the end of 2022 my friend and collaborator Dan Clayton wrote, for Byline Times, about the latest iteration of toxic terminology and rhetoric: the demonising of refugees and migrants:

‘Swamping’, ‘Cockroaches’, ‘Invasion’: How Language Shapes our View of Migration

In early 2024 I belatedly learned of an interestingly tendentious and sententious glossary purporting to list and explain the words used by the ‘woke’. This, compiled by Dr James Lindsay, critically examines key terms relating to gender studies, critical race theory and identity politics in the US context:

Translations from the Wokish

And in May 2024 Amanda Montell described in The Guardian how politicians and influencers deploy cliches in online discourses:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/may/20/the-big-idea-the-simple-trick-that-can-sabotage-your-critical-thinking?CMP=share_btn_url

In June 2025 the Centre for Media Monitoring published its analysis of the BBC‘s coverage of the devastation of Gaza:

Click to access CfMM-report-2023-24-ePDF-1.pdf

Later in June, as Israel and Iran exchanged fire, Assal Rad noted the double standards employed in reports of the conflict:

The language of manufacturing consent:

🇮🇱

: Preemptive strikes

🇮🇷

: Escalation

🇮🇱

: Warns

🇮🇷

: Threatens

🇮🇱

: Targets

🇮🇷

: Attacks

🇮🇱

: Government

🇮🇷

: Regime

🇮🇱

: Right to self-defense

🇮🇷

: Condemnations

🇮🇱

: Sophisticated military (has nukes)

🇮🇷

: Nuclear threat (has no nukes)

THE SLANG AND NEW LANGUAGE ARCHIVE

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A research portal for scholars, the press and the public

The Slang and New Language Archive was created in 1994 while I was Director of the Language Centre at King’s College London. The archive, consisting of a small library of books and periodicals and a number of databases and sub-directories, was designed as a repository for the collection, storage and dissemination of new language, in particular examples of nonstandard varieties of English such as slang, jargon and buzzwords. The archive was later expanded to take in examples of media language, political language, linguistic curiosities and etymologies. It remains a resource, unique in the UK and not-for-profit, assisting researchers, students, teachers and journalists, as well as non-specialists, in accessing information about aspects of contemporary language that are under-represented in traditional dictionaries and reference works.

This link will take you to the Archive webpage at King’s College, where there are further links to relevant articles and published sources…

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/slang-and-new-language

Glossaries from the archive may be accessed on this site by entering keywords, such as slang, jargon, MLE (Multiethnic London English), familect (highly colloquial language used in the home), coronaspeak (language related to the COVID-19 pandemic) and weaponised words (the contentious language of Brexit, populism and biased reporting) and slurs (racist and misogynist terms) in the search box. Once you have accessed a post of interest, check the tags and categories at the foot of the page for other articles or glossaries on the same topic.

Two of the larger archive datafiles are hosted on Aston University’s Institute of Forensic Linguistics Databank site. These are a glossary of current youth slang…

https://fold.aston.ac.uk/handle/123456789/4

And a glossary of UK street slang, rap music and gang terminology…

https://fold.aston.ac.uk/handle/123456789/5

Please note that the King’s archive focuses principally on contemporary language, that is terms used from the twentieth century to the present day. If you are interested in historical slang, I strongly recommend the monumental work by my associate, the British lexicographer Jonathon Green. His dictionary, now generously freely available online, lists current and historical slang terms with timelines and citations illustrating their usage and development…

https://greensdictofslang.com/

For more information, for queries, or to donate examples of language, contact me via this website or via the King’s College webpage. I’m on Twitter as @tonythorne007 too.

In terms of new slang and nonstandard language there are few reliable resources online. In February 2025, however, US publisher Merriam-Webster launched their own slang dictionary. You can find it here…

https://www.merriam-webster.com/slang

Among the many more informal glossaries and wordlists of slang posted on the internet in 2025, this review of slang in English schools is unusually comprehensive and accurate…

https://teachertapp.com/uk/articles/down-with-the-kids-slang-in-british-classrooms-2025/

QUIET QUITTING, TWO-TIMING OR DOUBLEDATING?

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A (nearly) new lexicon describes new attitudes to work

I spoke last week to Financial Times journalist Emma Jacobs about so-called ‘Polygamous Working‘, part of the new vocabulary of the workplace generated by younger employees still coming to terms with a post-pandemic work-life balance. Holding a second job is not necessarily illegal providing it is disclosed, but recent reports describe hundreds of public sector workers in the UK illicitly receiving multiple salaries from simultaneous jobs. When the idea of a polyamorous workplace first surfaced three or so years ago, some business gurus hailed it as a positive trend: “Polygamous careers are giving workers the opportunity to hone new skills, fully leverage their knowledge, and pursue numerous interests at once. The emphasis is on contributing to various projects and roles, as opposed to working exclusively with a specific employer.”

“In this context new expressions like “quiet quitting” and “task masking” are gaining traction. They are, says writer and lexicographer Tony Thorne, “self-consciously coined and promoted like memes”, designed to go viral. Thorne thinks this suggests the young people using them are not lazy, but “more resistant to accepting traditional notions of work, workplaces and work etiquette”. Perhaps no surprise, given they grew up in the aftermath of Brexit and the pandemic.“

Gen Z in particular have a different take on work-life balance and really on the nature of work itself I think. They approach these things as part of a wider matrix of lifestyle modes, (self-help and self actualisation and curating relationships) what they call ‘vibes’ and ‘aesthetics’ and performative behaviour. We can’t forget also that their behaviour even at work often reflects their pervasive use of irony, sarcasm and self-parody.

This is reflected in the terminology they have adopted of course. I think another aspect which hasn’t been discussed much is the fact that GenZ have not been conditioned by the sort of corporate culture, office culture or lingering work ethic that Gen X and millennials were conditioned by. Add to this the fact that they more than anyone have undergone the disruption caused by Brexit, the aftermath of austerity and the pandemic and so may be more resistant to accepting traditional notions of work, workplaces and work etiquette.

There is yet another way in which things are different for younger cohorts. They exist in a globalised online reality where trends in behaviour are not driven by ‘authorities’ or ‘professionals’ but by influencers and content creators chasing clicks and clout. New expressions are not just words or phrases which spread by word of mouth but may be self consciously coined and promoted like memes. They may not simply exist as sounds and spellings but also accompany images and soundtracks (as on TikTok). Linguists might call them ‘multimodal‘.

Neither the notions they describe or the terms themselves are completely new. Back in 2005* I reported ironic office slang such as ‘FaceTiming’, just putting in an appearance to suggest dedication to the job, ‘Sunlighting’ (like moonlighting), aka ‘Dual Jobbing‘, doing a quite different job one day a week. ‘WFH‘, ‘Remote Working‘, ‘Hybrid Working‘ – and ‘Side Hustles‘ – were later coinages prompted by enforced flexibility. The end of the pandemic saw the ‘Great Resignation‘ of 2021 as disillusioned workers supposedly abandoned unfulfilling careers en masse. Employers were encouraged to promote ‘Cross-Skilling‘, training staff to perform a wider range of functions, and ‘Job-Crafting‘, allowing employees to design their own roles.

Emma’s article with contributions from Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, is here…

https://www.ft.com/content/e3349ea5-50f7-447b-b466-750e038f706b

*From Shoot the Puppy -A survival guide to the curious jargon of modern life

Writing in the Conversation, John-Paul Byrne has more on the ‘quiet quitting ‘phenomenon…

The trend for ‘quiet’ and ‘soft’ quitting is a symptom of our deteriorating relationship with work

GOING VIRAL, GOING GLOBAL

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youth slang crosses world englishes

Last week I was interviewed by two young journalists about the pervasive slang generated by Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Interestingly both journalists are operating outside the US/UK matrix from which much of this language variety emanates. Interestingly too, both journalists asked similar questions about the latest linguistic novelties and how we might respond to them. Kanika Saxena‘s piece appeared in the Economic Times of India, and my contribution is here…

1. How do new slang words take root in a generation? Do they slowly build momentum, or does one viral moment suddenly put them everywhere?

In the past it could take some time for slang to escape from the local social group (‘in-group’ or ‘peer group’: a group of friends, a gang, fellow workers, etc.) where it originates into the outside world, then to spread by word of mouth into other parts of society, finally perhaps being picked up by the entertainment or print media. Nowadays this process has been massively speeded up by messaging and the internet, so that a novel term can go viral and reach beyond its original community almost instantaneously. New expressions can spread via social media and platforms like TikTok, Youtube, InstaGram right across the ‘anglosphere’ and go global.

2. Some words stick around for decades, while others vanish overnight. What makes certain slang words stand the test of time?

Linguists have tried to analyse why some terms become briefly fashionable and then disappear while others endure. There don’t seem to be any rules that govern why this happens. Some experts think that words which convey important social or technological innovations or that reflect current ‘moods’ or preoccupations are likely to have a longer appeal, but there’s no real proof of this. It could also be because a word relates to important social behaviour or relationships: insults, terms of endearment, ‘dating’ language, complaining, identity labels, for example, have to be reinvented for each successive generation, then persist until their users mature or grow older.

3. With social media throwing new words at us daily, are we actually creating more slang than before, or does it just feel that way because everything is amplified online?

It’s hard to say if the total ‘volume’ of slang has increased because, in the past at least, it was impossible to quantify it. What is definitely true is that slang has for some time become more accepted by mainstream media whereas it used to be censored or ignored. We also have the very new phenomenon whereby influencers, TikTok stars and content creators are using online resources to consciously, deliberately create, promote and spread new terms, so slang is no longer just coming ‘up from the streets’ (or spread via music, TV and movies) but is a commodity exchanged and pushed to gain prestige or sell oneself.

4. Older generations always seem skeptical of new slang—until, of course, they start using it too. What’s the secret to a word crossing generational lines?

Parents, teachers and ‘authority figures’ generally start by decrying younger people’s language and avoiding or ignoring it or trying to ban it. (This isn’t really justified by the way: slang may be seen as socially marginal but is not technically deficient or defective language and uses the same techniques as poetry or literature) But if a term is adopted by the media (‘woke’ is an example) they may in a few cases start to use it themselves. Technological terms (‘spam’, ‘troll’ etc.) and lifestyle jargon may be invented or used by older speakers. I always warn parents, though, not to try and imitate their kids by borrowing their slang. In the kids’ own language this is extremely ‘cringe’.

My second interview was with Austėja Zokaitė who is based in Lithuania and it appears in the online magazine Bored Panda, an arresting and anarchic daily roundup of the latest viral images, memes and commentary on internet culture. The whole report is here, with my comments interspersed with the succession of visual elements…

This IG Page Shares “Hard” Images, And Here’s 30 Of The Most Unhinged

Two weeks later I took part in a podcast on the subject of Slang, hosted by US students Sophie Xie and Andrea Lee. Our discussion is here…

Dang, What’s That Slang? by Andrea Lee

INITIAL FINDINGS

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more updates on 2025’s language landscape

Once again, I’m very grateful indeed to Randoh Sallihall of Unscramblerer.com for sharing his data on language usage online. I previously posted his analysis of last year’s slang lookups (online searches)* and this time his findings reveal the most popular internet text abbreviation lookups in 2025 so far, for the UK and the USA. I was amused to see SMH (‘shaking my head‘) featuring high in both lists. A few years ago I confidently stated in a BBC radio interview that this stood for ‘same here’ – as I had just been informed by a group of schoolkids. I was immediately and publicly corrected – and shamed – by presenter Anne McElvoy and invited journalist Hannah Jane Parkinson and the bitter experience has stayed with me.** It may be culturally significant also that Britain’s favourite apology – in the form of SOZ – doesn’t feature at all on the American list.

“Analysis of Google search data for 2025 so far reveals the most searched for text abbreviations in the UK.”

Most searched for text abbreviations in the United Kingdom:

1.      POV (39 000 searches) – Point of view.

2.      SMH (34 000 searches) – Shake my head.

3.      PMO (28 000 searches) – Put me on.

4.      ICL (17 000 searches) – I Can’t Lie.

5.      OG (16 000 searches) – Original gangster.

6.      OTP (16 000 searches) – One true pairing.

7.      NVM (13 000 searches) – Never mind.

8.      TM (11 000 searches)- Talk to me.

9.      SN (7 000 searches) – Say nothing.

10.   BTW (6 000 searches) – By the way.

11.   KMT (6 000 searches) – Kiss my teeth.

12.   FS (6 000 searches) – For sure.

13.   WYM (6 000 searches) – What you mean.

14.   HRU (6 000 searches) – How are you?

15.   ATP (5 000 searches) – At this point.

16.   SYBAU (5 000 searches) – Shut your b—h ass up.

17.   IGHT (5 000 searches) – Alright.

18.   ONB (4 000 searches) – On bro.

19.   WSP (4 000 searches) – What’s up?

20.   TY (4 000 searches) – Thank you.

21.   SOZ (3 500 searches) – Sorry.

22.   IDC (3 000 searches) – I don’t care.

23.   LDAB (3 000 searches) –  Let’s do a b-tch.

24.   PFP (3 000 searches) – Picture for proof.

25.   IBR (3 000 searches) – It’s been real.

26.   IYW  (3 000 searches) – If you will.

27.   TB (2 500 searches) – Text back.

28.   FYI (2 500 searches) – For your information.

29.   GTFO (2 500 searches) – Get the f–k out.

30.   HY (2 000 searches) – Hell yeah.

Most searched for text abbreviations in the United States:

1.      FAFO (254 000 searches) – F–k around and find out.

2.      SMH (166 000 searches) – Shake my head.

3.      PMO (101 000 searches) – Put me on.

4.      OTP (95 000 searches) – One true pairing.

5.      TBH (93 000 searches) – To be honest.

6.      ATP (85 000 searches) – At this point.

7.      TS (79 000 searches) – Talk soon.

8.      WYF (76 000 searches) – Where are you from.

9.      NFS (75 000 searches) – New friends.

10.   ASL (65 000 searches) – As hell.

11.   POV (63 000 searches) – Point of view.

12.   WYLL (59 000 searches) – What you look like.

13.   FS (58 000 searches) – For sure.

14.   FML (56 000 searches) – F–k my life.

15.   DW (55 000 searches) – Don’t worry.

16.   HMU (54 000 searches) – Hit me up.

17.   ISO (53 000 searches) – In search of.

18.   WSG (50 000 searches) – What’s good?

19.   IMO (48 000 searches) – In my opinion.

20.   MK (45 000 searches) – Mmm, okay.

21.   ETA (40 000 searches) – Estimated time of arrival.

22.   ICL (37 000 searches) – I Can’t Lie.

23.   MB (37 000 searches) – My bad.

24.   STG (29 000 searches) – Swear to god.

25.   ION (28 000 searches) – In other media.

26.   PFP (27 000 searches) – Picture for proof.

27.   NTM (27000 searches) – Nothing much.

28.   DTM (26 000 searches) – Doing too much.

29.   TTM (26 000 searches)- Talk to me.

30.   MBN (25 000 searches) – Must be nice.

31.   ETC (24 000 searches) – And the rest.

32.   BTW (23 000 searches) – By the way.

33.   WFH (21 000 searches) – Work from home.

34.   GMFU (20 000 searches) – Got me f—-d up.

35.   NGL (19000 searches) – Not gonna lie.

36.   SYBAU (19 000 searches) – Shut your b—h ass up.

37.   BTA (17 000 searches) – But then again.

38.   SB (17 000 searches) – Somebody.

39.   HBD (16 000 searches) – Happy Birthday.

40.   PMG (15 000 searches) – Oh my god.

41.   HY (15 000 searches) – Hell yeah.

42.   TMB (11 000 searches) – Text me back.

43.   WYS (10 000 searches) – Whatever you say.

44.   GNG (9 000 searches) – Gang (close friends or family).

45.   IKTR (8 000 searches) – I know that’s right.

46.   IKR (7 000 searches) – I know, right?

47.   ARD (6 000 searches) – Alright.

48.   IFG (5 500 searches) – I f—–g guess.

49.   HN (4 000 searches) – Hell no.

50.   TTH (3 000 searches) – Trying too hard.

A spokesperson for Unscramblerer.com commented on the findings: “Text abbreviations are the secret language of the internet. You could even call them an integral part of social media culture. Snappy, always changing and hard to understand. Texting abbreviations is all about saving time and appearing cool. Keeping up to date with the newest trending abbreviations is no easy task. Old meanings can change while new abbreviations are created. A recent study found that abbreviations might not be as cool as people think. Using abbreviations makes the sender seem less sincere. This also leads to lower engagement and shorter responses. There is nothing wrong with using abbreviations in casual conversations with friends and family. However it is best do draw a line for professional conversations. Context matters.”

Research was conducted by word finding experts at Unscramblerer.com.

We analyzed 01.01.2025 -05.03.2025 search data from Google Trends for terms related to text abbreviations.

Methodology: We used Google Trends to discover the top trending text abbreviations and Ahrefs to find the number of searches. America’s most popular text abbreviations can be discovered in Google Trends through the keyword variations of ‘meaning text’. Abbreviations are used most often on social media and texting. The 2025 top trending abbreviations are the least understood. People have to search for their meaning (example ‘TBH meaning text’). Ahrefs shows many variations of meaning searches like ‘text meaning’ or ‘means in text'(example ‘PMO meaning in text’) and similar keyword combinations(example ‘what does SMH mean in text’). We added up 100 search variations of top text abbreviations.

I was very grateful, too, when Claire Martin-Tellis of content marketing and digital PR specialists North Star Inbound contacted me with an update, again from the USA, on attitudes to outdated slang…

“As new slang terms like “Beta,” “GYAT,” and  “Skibidi,” continue to surface, it’s enough even to make Gen Z feel old! Language learning app Preply asked Americans of all ages to weigh in on their favorite era of slang. Here is what decade reigns supreme:

  • Over ⅓ of Americans say the 1990s is their favorite decade for slang.
  • Men surveyed preferred the 1970s while women preferred the 1990s.
  • “Baloney,” “take a chill pill,” and “bogus” are the three most popular slang terms Americans want to see come back.

*https://language-and-innovation.com/2024/11/18/the-search-for-slang/

**the embarrassment is still audible here…https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vs6g2

THE SEARCH FOR SLANG

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Researching and tracking the latest slang can now draw upon statistical analysis of online data.

As 2024 draws to its end and talk among lexicographers, culture journalists and language buffs turns to ‘words of the year’, I’m immensely grateful to Randoh Sallihall of Unscramblerer for providing me with his datasets showing lookups (Google searches) for the most popular recent slang expressions…

Most searched for slang words in United Kingdom:

1.      Gaslighting (170 000 searches) – a type of manipulation that makes you doubt your memories and feelings. The person doing it may lie and deny things.

2.      Skibidi (125 000 searches) – refers to a viral internet trend featuring surreal, animated videos of singing toilets and dancing heads, popularized on platforms like TikTok for its bizarre humor.

3.      Pookie (47 000 searches) – to show endearment and affection. Used for a close friend, partner or family member. A playful way to say someone is special.

4.      Hawk tuah (40 000 searches) – imitative of a spitting sound. The catchphrase originates from a viral street interview conducted in June 2024 with Haliey Welch, who stated that her signature move for making a man ‘go crazy’ in bed was to ‘give him that hawk tuah and spit on that thang’.

5.      Sigma (37 000 searches) – refers to an independent, self-reliant person who operates outside traditional social hierarchies, often described as a ‘lone wolf.’

6.      SMH (31 000 searches) – internet slang for ‘shaking my head’. Used to express disapproval or disappointment.

7.      Demure (26 000 searches) – reserved, modest or shy in manner or appearance. The TikTok user Jools Lebron made a series of viral videos using the phrase “very demure”. This trend gave the word a playful slang meaning. She uses it to assess appropriate makeup and fashion choices in various settings.

8.      Rizz (25 000 searches) – style, charm or attractiveness. The ability to attract a romantic partner and make others like you.

9.      Dei (17 000 searches) – diversity, equity, inclusion. A family friendly way of saying woke.

10.   Aura (13 000 searches) – the vibe someone gives off. When used by tweens and teens it is likely a reference to how badass someone is. Aura points make you cooler. So you definitely want to earn more aura points instead of losing them.

We can compare this list with Randoh’s equivalent for the USA, used in the Newsweek article posted previously to which I contributed, and reproduced here with his explanatory comments…

Analysis of Google search data for 2024 reveals the most searched for slang words in America:

1.      Demure (260 000 searches) – reserved, modest or shy in manner or appearance. The TikTok user Jools Lebron made a series of viral videos using the phrase “very demure”. This trend gave the word a playful slang meaning. She uses it to assess appropriate makeup and fashion choices in various settings.

2.      Sigma (220 000 searches) – refers to an independent, self-reliant person who operates outside traditional social hierarchies, often described as a ‘lone wolf.’

3.      Skibidi (205 000 searches) – refers to a viral internet trend featuring surreal, animated videos of singing toilets and dancing heads, popularized on platforms like TikTok for its bizarre humor.

4.      Hawk tuah (180 000 searches) – imitative of a spitting sound. The catchphrase originates from a viral street interview conducted in June 2024 with Haliey Welch, who stated that her signature move for making a man ‘go crazy’ in bed was to ‘give him that hawk tuah and spit on that thang’.

5.      Sobriquet (105 000 searches) – a nickname or descriptive name given to a person or thing. Borrowed from French sobriquet (nickname).

6.      Schmaltz (65 000 searches) – refers to excessive sentimentality or melodrama. Often used for art, movies, music or storytelling if there is too much sappiness.

7.      Sen (50 000 searches) – slang for self.

8.      Katz (34 000 searches) – a term for anything enjoyable, fun or pleasing. It can also mean ‘yes’.

9.      Oeuvre (25 000 searches) – refers to the complete works produced by an artist, writer or composer. A word used by literature professors to express superiority.

10.   Preen (20 000 searches) – slang for a child who tries to act like a teenager(wears teen clothes or makeup).

A spokesperson for Unscramblerer.com commented on the findings: “The English language is ever changing. Every year new slang words are created. Many slang words are born through trending topics and viral videos on social media. However only few manage to stick around long enough to be added to the dictionary and remain in daily use. Slang words are a normal and fun evolution of language. We encourage everyone to learn some new words and surprise their children by using them.”

Research was conducted by word-finding experts at Unscramblerer.com.

We analyzed 01.01.2024 -25.10.2024 search data from Google Trends for terms related to slang words.

Methodology: We used Google Trends to discover the top trending slang terms and Ahrefs to find the number of searches. Americas most popular slang terms can be discovered in Google Trends through the keyword ‘meaning’. People will hear or read slang terms and search for the meaning of the term (example ‘demure meaning’). Ahrefs shows many variations of meaning searches like ‘slang’ or ‘trend’ (example ‘demure slang’) and similar keyword combinations (example ‘what does demure mean’). We added up 150 search variations of top slang terms.

A few days after Randoh’s findings were published, I was asked by Robert Milazzo* to take part in the masterclass on new slang and youth language that he convened at Virginia Commonwealth University. The whole lively one-hour event was recorded and can be accessed here…

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yYlV7LkKdEf5AqFF-bJQAfIE5s5PUpGi/view?usp=sharing

Robert’s class was particularly illuminating, allowing as it did for contributions from young slang users themselves and from puzzled old-timers too. Bear in mind that the samples handled by data analysts are taken solely from online usage and not from authentic speech. Nearly all the slang used on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, etc. originates in the USA whereas the slang terms used by British youth in their IRL conversations will differ considerably from their North American counterparts, showing much greater influence from African Caribbean rather than African American sources.

*https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-milazzo-3a8860116/

LANGUAGE AND LONGEVITY – 2

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Dictionary makers and journalists are breathlessly – if not desperately – publicising the latest online language – but do they really understand it?

One week on, I spoke to Chloe MacDowell of the UK Guardian newspaper, then to Marni McFall of the US Newsweek magazine on the topic of TikTok language and the online messaging mannerisms of Influencers and GenZ. Chloe was interested in one particular trending TikTok catchphrase, Marni in the whole panoply of 2024’s viral innovations.

Once authentic conversations and personal interactions (previously happening in private spaces or local communities) began to feature on the internet and in messaging and on microblogging platforms,  language novelties, slang and faddish usages crossed over from a private realm into the global public domain. The latest slang and new language was visible, audible and immediately available to share. Obscure or exotic terms might quickly catch on and become viral favourites, spreading in some cases across the anglosphere more rapidly than print, broadcast or word-of-mouth transmission had ever been to achieve in the past.

Words and phrases began to function like memes, taking on sometimes a ‘multimodal’ aspect whereby sound and image could reinforce the purely verbal expressions that people chose to exchange and promote. Pre-internet there had always been catchphrases, what linguists call ‘vogue words’, slogans and soundbites, and keywords that somehow seemed to evoke or encapsulate some special aspect of the ‘zeitgeist’. What we have now is a much more knowing, deliberate intention (on the part of trend-setters, influencers, ‘thought-leaders’) to create new language to celebrate new identities and to promote new attitudes and lifestyle innovations to the widest possible audience.

Subcultures like surfers, valley girls, fanboys and girls, hip hop aficionados had always invented striking, expressive language and this is still true, but instead of niche culture we have ‘meganiches’, instead of subcultures we are dealing with globalised communities.

The fashionable language of TikTok and GenZ in particular is part of their wider obsession with vibes, aesthetics and microtrends, many of which arise and are discarded in rapid succession. The prevalent style is exhibitionist, self-promoting, allusive and often ironic, increasingly even absurdist, making it hard for outsiders to grasp the nuances in play. Older commentators and dictionary publishers struggle to keep pace, often misunderstand and record the terms in desperation (in their searches for ‘word of the year’ for example) just as they fall out of use.

The use of this language as an identity marker in an intensely competitive digital ecosystem means that the Gen Alpha cohort now ridicule GenZ usages as being out-of date, while GenZ is still deriding millennials for their old-fashioned ‘cringe’ vocabulary. At the same time would-be influencers practise bragging, ‘manifesting’ and other forms of self-congratulation in a search for clicks and clout.

One of the latest features of online wordplay is the elevating of an older concept or cliche into a teasing provocation or pretence at new insights, as we have seen with ‘delulu’, ‘demure’ and ‘mindful’, ‘rizz’ and ‘brat’. The current rash of declarations of ‘being privileged’ – a new version of ‘humblebragging’ or ‘virtue-signalling’ – is another example. In parallel is the ironic celebration of the incoherence or absurdity of much online discourse and of low-quality ‘slop’ by embracing a culture of ‘brainrot’ – nonsense memes such as ‘skibidi’ and vacuous, contagious content.

Most of the innovation in online language and image still emanates from the US and even though a global audience can access it instantly, its tropes (think ‘goblin-mode’ – ‘goblin’ doesn’t have the same associations for Brits) don’t always translate for other speakers of English. In parallel, poses, gestures and looks as well as music-related modes are increasingly generated from non-English cultural zones such as Japan and Korea. It will be interesting to see if other parts of the globe begin to play a part in the evolving online theatre of signs and behaviours, but this doesn’t seem to have happened yet.

Chloe’s piece is here…

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/nov/02/what-a-privilege-trend-catches-on-as-gratitude-makes-social-media-comeback?CMP=share_btn_url

And the Newsweek article is here…

https://www.newsweek.com/2024-most-popular-internet-slang-words-revealed-1978732

On the first of November Collins Dictionaries, ahead of the pack, had already announced their choice of word of the year for 2024, and their candidates illustrated the same, in my opinion mistaken, concentration exclusively on terms from a very narrow range of sources. While postings on social media are performances designed to attract attention, there is an even wider domain in which discourse demands analysis: the crises in the Middle East and Ukraine and the surreal spectacle of the US presidential campaigns, for example, are also highlighting keywords and generating new formulations or reworkings of language – data that mainstream media and lexicographers seem to think unworthy of their attention…

https://twitter.com/CollinsDict/status/1852139743112208794

LANGUAGE AND LONGEVITY -1

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Digital media enables language change and innovation – of course, but how much and for how long?

I spoke to Caitlin Talbot, Culture Researcher for the Economist magazine, who asked me about the effect of TikTok talk and the slang, catchphrases and viral puns invented by Gen Z. Caitlin wondered how many new terms were actually being added to the global conversation each year, and whether these novelties would last.

My own solo attempts to record new language and to understand and comment on its sources rely on fairly haphazard, old-fashioned techniques, so it’s not possible for me to quantify the lexical items, locutions, expressions and longer elements of discourse that I come across. The major dictionary publishers do have access to powerful and sophisticated electronic methods of scanning, scraping (‘aggregating’ as it should more properly be termed) raw linguistic data from across the internet. This material can be categorised to a certain extent and entered into giant databanks from which lexicographers can select the terms they periodically admit into published dictionaries.

Attempts to amass and analyse examples of language in use are nonetheless hampered by several considerations: the language in question is primarily in the form of text, rather than authentic speech, and the texts in question are largely recoverable from published sources and media platforms, only to a limited extent from personal messages. Tracking their use over time is possible, and the popularity of some usages can be subjected to frequency counts and represented on timelines, but private use and communications by local and specialist communities is far harder to assess. One of the more interesting challenges to the lexicographer is to predict which novel terms may become embedded in the national conversation and which drop out of use – some almost immediately and others over time. In fact my experience (since I began to collect slang in the 1980s) proves that it’s impossible to predict, let alone to speculate as to why this happens.

Caitlin’s article, with useful links, is here…(if it is paywalled for you, go to here *)

TikTok is changing how Gen Z speaks

In speculating about the number of new terms generated (and the playful, sometimes absurdist tendencies featuring on social media involve not only inventing new terms but reworking and re-purposing existing language like ‘demure’, ‘babygirl’, ‘millennial pause’, etc.) we can only fall back on subjective, anecdotal, incomplete accounts, even if these may be interesting and informative in their way…

TikTok Slang: The Exclusive Language of Gen Z (Study)

TikTok is full of made-up slang and trendbait | Vox

* TikTok is changing how Gen Z speaks

On social media new words spread far and fast

The illustration shows a playful evolution of speech bubble characters, progressing from a small, four-legged figure to a larger one riding a skateboard, against a bold red background
Illustration: Mark Long

Oct 21st 2024SavedShareGive

THE WORD “demure” is old—it describes the sort of modest lady Victorians esteemed—but it is freshly fashionable. There are some 800,000 posts on TikTok with the tag #demure. Youngsters today are using the word with lashings of irony, invoking it to describe everything from Saturn to sunset to New York City’s bin service.

TikTok is changing how young people talk. Other fusty words, such as “coquette”, are fashionable again. Colloquialisms are on the rise: members of Gen Z say “yapping” instead of “talking” and trim “delusional” to “delulu”. New words have also become popular. Take “skibidi”, a term popularised by a meme of an animated head singing in a toilet; it means “cool”, “bad” or “very”, depending on the context.

On social media words spread far and fast. At least 100 English words are produced, or given new meaning, on TikTok a year, reckons Tony Thorne, director of the Slang and New Language Archive at King’s College London. Some linguists think the platform is changing not just what youngsters are saying, but how they are saying it. A “TikTok accent”, which includes “uptalk”, an intonation that rises at the end of sentences, may be spreading.

The platform’s versatility encourages experimentation. Users can combine audio, text and video in a single post. That means words that sound especially satisfying can go viral, as well as those that are memorable in written form. Linguistic code has emerged, dubbed “algospeak”, to dodge content-moderation algorithms. It includes euphemisms (sex workers are called “accountants”), and misspellings (“seggs” instead of sex).

The mutation of language on TikTok is also due, in large part, to the age of its users. Most are 18-34 years old. That matters because “Young people are language innovators,” says Christian Ilbury, a linguist at the University of Edinburgh. For decades youngsters have created words to distinguish themselves from adults. On social media such neologisms find a big audience. Mr Ilbury describes this as “linguistic identity work”; parents have long called it attention-seeking.

The platform brings together fan groups and communities, from #kpopfans (people who like Korean pop music) to #booktokers (people who love reading). These groups create their own slang, says Adam Aleksic, a linguist and influencer. Some of it leaks into the mainstream. Other slang comes from specific groups: black people have innovated and spread hundreds of English words over the years, from “cool” to “tea” (gossip). Journalists and screenwriters popularise such words; now TikTokers do, too.

*For help in understanding the language and online mannerisms of TikTok and GenZ, I’m grateful to my daughter, Daisy Thorne Mrak*

SLANG AT THE END OF SUMMER

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Teen talk continues to baffle older cohorts, but as autumn approaches the vibes shift – and Tiktok identities evolve…

In mid-August I talked to Mary McCarthy about the ever-changing patterns of youth language, and, with her kind permission, Mary’s article for the Irish Independent follows…

No cap, sigma and rizz? You’ll need more than Google Translate for teen talk now

Parents are supposed to be bemused by the slang words their children use, but the new summer vocab in our house has me totally flummoxed. This is particularly so with the younger two lads – eight and 11 – who walk around saying nonsense words like “sigma”, “no cap” “Skibidi Toilet” and “gyat” all the time.

I don’t mind them having in-jokes, and it’s nice to see them falling around laughing – I’ll take that over sullen moods any day. But what are they laughing about?

Are they being kind? I can see the pleasure of getting the giggles over absurd stuff. I used to have this thing with a school friend where we would say repeatedly “The dog is dead” in a Northern Ireland accent – no idea why. But there is so much coming at them now online. How can I know they won’t soak up the wrong messages? The Andrew Tate alpha-male rubbish, for example.

This week I hired my Gen Z 16-year-old to help me decode what his brothers were saying, and he pocketed his €5 before unhelpfully telling me that “it’s just little kids saying random, mental stuff”.

“It’s the internet, it’s TikTok language,” he said. But they don’t have TikTok, I reminded him. YouTube shorts are the same and they have a lot of that, he told me darkly.

So I asked the lads themselves, and they were fairly keen to enlighten me, which was reassur­ing. “No cap” means no lying, “sigma” just means cool (no Andrew Tate alpha-male link, thank goodness) and rizz is “charisma”.

My 11-year-old elaborated. “So, this would be a chat-up line like, ‘Are you from Tennessee? Because you’re the only ten I see’.” I’m unsure what to say. They refused to explain “gyat”, so I looked it up later.

It mostly seems fine. They’re getting it from pals and YouTube shorts, which I will limit more now. But what I’m most baffled about is the Skibidi Toilet YouTube show, and why they call everything Skibidi for no reason.

The show has amassed over 65 billion views over the last year, and I can’t see any pull factor. It’s about toilets with human heads engaged in a war with people who have CCTV cameras for heads, all set in a dystopian landscape. Apparently, there will be a TV show and a movie. I had a headache watching it after 30 seconds.

Youth slang can spread very quickly these days via online platforms and messaging

It’s everywhere. We were on holiday in Kerry a few weeks ago and had a few hours to kill in Kenmare, so we visited the Kenmare Stone Circle, which was erected some time between 2000 and 500 BC. If you clip a wish at the Hawthorn Fairy Tree, it comes true. That’s according to the man working there, who handed us a piece of paper and a pen.

Being my nosy self, I immediately started reading other people’s wishes, and among the pleas for health, happiness and planning permission there were lots of Skibidi.

“Sigma, sigma on the wall, who is the Skibiest of them all?” one card read.

“Desidere che i cani diventine Skibidy Toilet,” read another, which Google translate told me was “Wish that dogs become Skibidy toilets” in Italian. So it’s not just my children larking around. I’m sure it’s all just a silly phase, perhaps the same as my own “the dog is dead”.

Tony Thorne, director of the Slang and New Language Archive at King’s College London, said young people have always created their own language to keep outsiders like parents and teachers out. It just happens that there’s more around today.

“This language innovation, as linguists call it, used to take place in private spaces and only sometimes spread further – if, for example, the language was used in music or movies or TV comedies,” he said.

“Youth slang can spread very quickly these days via online platforms and messaging and so can become global. Terms often coined in the US rapidly move into the Anglosphere. We see that in the huge network of English speakers who converse excitedly in ‘mid-Atlantic’ accents.”

Thorne recommends the guide to teenage slang on the Gabb.com website. I soon discovered that “gyat” is a way to express admiration, usually for a woman’s backside. So I nipped that one in the bud.

It is a habit for parents and the older generation to laugh at teenagers for speaking in a frivolous way

Once you start researching the origins of these words, it gets interesting. According to a recent Forbes article on how Gen Z language is changing the workplace, to “slay” – which is something my 13-year-old daughter says, as in “You slayed that lasagne, Mammy” – means “high praise” and originated in black and LGBTQ+ communities before gaining popularity on TikTok.

I can’t remember using much slang as a teen, apart from the many violent descriptions we had for being drunk, among them flutered, slaughtered, battered and trollied.

My cousin would visit from Canada, and she loved hearing those terms. Today, though, there’s no difference between what a 15-year-old in Dublin and a 15-year-old in Toronto is exposed to, and they’re the more creative for this. After all, the way we learn to speak is from listening to other people, so we probably don’t really need to worry much about the slang.

Kevin Barry, former professor of English at the University of Galway, said that while adults can see it as foolish, there’s a wisdom to the newly minted words and phrases.

“It is a habit for parents and the older generation to laugh at teenagers for speaking in a frivolous way – to the adults it makes no sense. What they are seeing is the frontier of language change, which is a creative Wild West,” he said.

There’s no point trying to keep up. New slang will be coined as fast as I learn. We can’t police it. The only thing to do is role-model IRL (in real life) what it is to be a nice person. To not shout, to be kind, to make time for the children. To let them know you have high expectations for their behaviour by having high expectations for your own – no cap.

The dominance of memes and viral posts from the USA celebrating a brat summer was challenged in late August by a TikTok injunction to ‘be demure and mindful‘ in all one’s actions and representations. Alternative and mainstream media jumped quickly aboard the accelerating bandwagon – and Ellie Bramley of the Guardian asked me to comment…

‘Demure‘ is a seemingly prim and dated adjective, used recently only by rueful babyboomers and tabloid journalists, for whom it is code for ‘not completely undressed’ when describing female celebrities attending film festivals, tottering along red carpets and catwalks. In drag queen and ‘ballroom LGBT‘ circles, though, it has long featured as a self-mocking keyword when urging the outrageous, usually ironically and teasingly, to behave with modesty and decorum. It is in this spirit that ‘fierce divas’ and other influencers have relaunched the term, along with ‘mindful‘ in its older sense (before the advent of self-seeking ‘mindfulness’) of considerate, respectful and cautious. The Guardian piece is here…

It’s very easy to dismiss GenZ and TikTok fads as shallow, ephemeral provocations, unworthy of the attention of rational adults. Easy, too, to deride aged babyboomers like me who record them and attempt to analyse the thinking behind them. But as Ellie herself remarked, a keyword like ‘demure’, inasfar as it isn’t just an absurdist gesture, can not only signify a genuine shift in self-awareness on the part of a few influential online individuals, but can prompt reflection and even changes in behaviour among a much larger segment of the population.

With that in mind, from Laura Pitcher, here’s Dazed‘s perceptive take on the word of the moment…

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/64378/1/demure-mindful-tiktok-owns-an-internet-buzzword

In September I was interviewed by Mary Ugbodaga about a slang acronym in use in Nigeria…

WSG meaning: what does the acronym mean and how to respond – Legit.ng



After language?

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The latest multimodalities examined

During October I relished the chance to talk to the editors of DazedDigital, Serena Smith and Gunseli Yalcinkaya, and they told me about the most recent developments in online and digital communication and the new language varieties trending on social media. I have tried to make sense of a much younger generation’s performances and interactions and the notes I made follow here…

 Language and the way we use it is now for the first time truly globalised. This means for example that new accents and intonations and vocal affectations take place across several cultures almost simultaneously. This gives us pronunciation and intonation novelties like Youtuber or Influencer accent, TikTok voice, etc. These are fluid, evolving and can blend more than one traditional source (UK and US linguistic styles and usages for example). The phenomenon is not new – the mid-Atlantic accent dates back many decades and both Valley Girls and users of Multiethnic London English – MLE – have played with new ways of pronouncing, but the platforms and apps of the 2020s – TikTok in particular – highlight these…

Obviously the way we consume and exploit media has changed radically with the internet and mobile technology and determines the kinds of messages we exchange and the words, sounds and visuals we actually use. Short attention-spans mean that messages need to be accelerated, brief and telling: the constraints of apps and platforms make for compressed and dense information packages.  At the same time the imperative for innovation​ (something that has always been part of language evolution, but used to happen very gradually) – novelty, neologisms, new and more liberated attitudes to formality and informality and style in general – is integral to changing fashions, aesthetics, vibes. Even such basics as whether messages have to make sense have been destabilised by Gen Z‘s playful surrealism and absurdism and TikTok’s creative conventions.

One major change is the way that the distinction between written and spoken language has broken down since people began to type conversations and exchange rapid interactions electronically. Also Pre-existing words and expressions are hijacked, reversed, toxified, appropriated and modified as never before. And we all​ now have the power to do this via electronic media – we don’t need permission to publish and exchange our ideas and indulge our playful, mischievous or creative new usages.

Gunceli asked, There are so many memes joking about how we’ve ‘progressed past the need for language’. Obviously worth taking with a pinch of salt, but do you think there’s any truth to this? 

We won’t evolve ‘beyond language’ since language is simply a label for human interaction and communicative practices, but the specifics of that language will continue to adapt and mutate along with our social needs and our technologies. Linguists do talk increasingly in terms of multimodality whereby both online and offline communication involves much more than speech or writing – ‘language’ as we have known it. The buzzword multimodality can refer to how IRL we blend all sorts of semiotics often simultaneously: stance and posture, facial expression, gesture, writing, speaking and using a communication device, but also refers to how online and app messages employ abbreviations, acronyms, audio, video, symbols, memes as well as or instead of words (…soon probably touch and smell as well!)

The NPC streamers phenomenon highlighted by Dazed is another example of what I described as GenZ and TikTokers’ minimalist, surrealist or absurdist treatment of language. NPC stands for ‘non-playable character(s)’, the digital background entities with a limited repertoire of utterances and repetitive actions encountered in video games, and the streaming is an online activity, primarily on the TikTok platform, whereby creators imitate these characters by livestreaming themselves, and viewers reward them with in-app gifts for doing it.

The new primacy of image (and audio) over simply text and conversation has resulted in a human imitation of cartoon sounds and seemingly meaningless bits of language that only followers and enthusiasts will recognise and be positively triggered by. Playing with identities by way of words, slogans, soundbites and catchphrases is as much influenced by the poses of cosplayers or Furries and the behaviour of video-gamers as it is by ‘traditional’ ways of using verbal and visual language.

How do you think the mainstreaming of emerging tech like AI is changing the way we communicate verbally with one another?

Algorithms being used for automated reasoning and the generating of persuasive messaging or content are already operating at sophisticated levels, but the linguistic aspect is just as much prey to error and detectable failures as, for example, deepfake images and impersonations of artistic productions. If we are digitally literate and managing to keep up, we can often see through the deception, and this is probably reassuring. AI has some interesting potential: for example, to allow us to communicate with people whose language we don’t share. But I think the limitations of AI(-its difficulties in interpreting or reproducing human nuance, implication, indirectness, etc) will lead to – is already leading to – new forms of incoherence and misunderstanding. I suspect we will soon be able to recognise a particular ‘AI style’ so that artificially generated messages can be recognised as such in some cases – at least I hope so! Translators and teachers are already grappling with potential of AI to assist, supplement or replace their work – and its limitations in doing so. More alarmingly AI is already inventing and using languages that we humans can’t understand: https://www.fastcompany.com/90132632/ai-is-inventing-its-own-perfect-languages-should-we-let-it

Gunceli’s fascinating review of all these themes and more is here…

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61151/1/blessed-and-emoji-pilled-why-language-online-is-so-absurd?utm_term=blessed-and-emoji-pilled-why-language-online-is-so-absurd&utm_content=buffer26db7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=dazedtw

Serena Smith spoke to me about the latest version of familect, the intimate, informal, often comical language invented in private domestic spaces, about which I’ve written before on this site. Her excellent account of TikTok’s #MarriageLanguage is here…

https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61152/1/marriage-language-why-do-couples-talk-like-that-familect-tiktok?utm_term=marriage-language-why-couples-develop-their-own-dialects&utm_content=bufferb39d1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=dazedtw