Iāve been thinking about this lately.
Iām almost 40 something and I think I really wouldnāt like to imperson younger generations lingo for the sake of it being ātrendyā.
But there are two exceptions for me :
It genuinely made me laugh and āweaves wellā with my own way of talking. I mean, were not supposed to stop incorporating new words in our language as far as itās not forced, right? My slang comes from the 90s. Certain (small) parts of the newer gens slang fit so well into my own repertoire! I think thatās mostly the part which isnāt āword buildingā but āword archeologyā, like slang from my gen being reinterpreted/reappropriated, which is actually pretty cool.
Another funny case. Its happening a lot lately, but some words from my motherās language (she comes from an African country) are surprisingly becoming popular. I never used them before even though I think and talk to myself with them since being a child. Iām hesitating a lot to use them now. It would be easier for me but could really look like āplaying coolā which I donāt want at all. For additional complexity, add that some of those words, in my motherās/family language have slight differences (like language differences across same-language speaking countries), and when I do use those words, Iām getting corrected by youngsters for slang misuse. I mean itās fair, I donāt take it personally, but itās weird.
Ex :
Miskina, in Arab
Maskine, in the weird variant of swahili my mother speaks.
Weāre always picking up new slang. Some slang never really makes the jump between generations, regions, subcultures, even languages, etc. But some do.
One of the most successful slang words is ācool,ā which spread from the jazz scene in the 30ās to the general American lexicon in the 50ās, and has basically become such a core part of the English language, even outside of the U.S., that those of us born after donāt even think of it as slang.
Every generation has a few of these, and they might have started in a particular video/movie/TV show/song, some other work, in a certain community among a certain generation, ethnic group (or bilingual speakers who just slowly incorporate calques or loan words from their other language), or other group, and the popularity of that particular word makes the jump to those who might not be familiar with where it comes from.
I was a kid when āmy badā showed up in the basketball world (possibly coined by Dikembe Mutumbo), got picked up by American black teens and spread to other generations and races until it eventually just became part of standard colloquial American English. 10 years after first hearing it, I heard a white boomer college professor use it non-ironically, and I realized that it was just something people of all walks of life just said. Now, 20+ years after that, itās still going strong.
Thinking back, I think ādudeā made a similar jump in the 70ās. The TV show Seinfeld popularized a bunch of phrases that entered the lexicon: āyada yada,ā āregift,ā maybe āshiksa.ā āCleanā as an aesthetic descriptor probably became popular after Outkastās 2000 hit āSo Fresh, So Clean,ā even if the song itself reflected existing cultural usage. Post 2010, Iām guessing āsusā has staying power, and definitely jumped generations, largely off of the brief āAmong Usā popularity.
āYeetā and ārizzā have stuck around a bit longer than fleeting teen slang usually does, but it remains to be seen which Gen Z teenage words actually survive regular usage into the 2040ās. Iām guessing the ones that get featured in a popular song or TV show are the ones that have the highest likelihood of long term survival.
I think youāre on the money with yeet, and I think āafā (as in āDark Souls is hard afā) still has a fair bit of usage considering how old it is and how cringe it was for a while.
Cringe, too, for that matter, although I still think ācringeyā is better
Edit: I predict ālow keyā will stick around, too.
I donāt judge āsusā because to me it isnāt as much generational as it is a marker of someone who survived going insane during the COVID lockdown by watching a lot of Mr. Fruit playing Among Us or just playing games with others online.
Whatās even more cringe is when a 40-something year old uses those terms and is serious.
Because itās nocap bussin when we yeet out those terms and the kids think weāre being serious. Itās extra when we do it slightly wrong. Skibidi
Iāve been thinking about this lately. Iām almost 40 something and I think I really wouldnāt like to imperson younger generations lingo for the sake of it being ātrendyā.
But there are two exceptions for me :
It genuinely made me laugh and āweaves wellā with my own way of talking. I mean, were not supposed to stop incorporating new words in our language as far as itās not forced, right? My slang comes from the 90s. Certain (small) parts of the newer gens slang fit so well into my own repertoire! I think thatās mostly the part which isnāt āword buildingā but āword archeologyā, like slang from my gen being reinterpreted/reappropriated, which is actually pretty cool.
Another funny case. Its happening a lot lately, but some words from my motherās language (she comes from an African country) are surprisingly becoming popular. I never used them before even though I think and talk to myself with them since being a child. Iām hesitating a lot to use them now. It would be easier for me but could really look like āplaying coolā which I donāt want at all. For additional complexity, add that some of those words, in my motherās/family language have slight differences (like language differences across same-language speaking countries), and when I do use those words, Iām getting corrected by youngsters for slang misuse. I mean itās fair, I donāt take it personally, but itās weird.
Ex :
Miskina, in Arab
Maskine, in the weird variant of swahili my mother speaks.
I used to work with two grown men (with kids and in their 40s) who used all of the gen z slang seriously.
Weāre always picking up new slang. Some slang never really makes the jump between generations, regions, subcultures, even languages, etc. But some do.
One of the most successful slang words is ācool,ā which spread from the jazz scene in the 30ās to the general American lexicon in the 50ās, and has basically become such a core part of the English language, even outside of the U.S., that those of us born after donāt even think of it as slang.
Every generation has a few of these, and they might have started in a particular video/movie/TV show/song, some other work, in a certain community among a certain generation, ethnic group (or bilingual speakers who just slowly incorporate calques or loan words from their other language), or other group, and the popularity of that particular word makes the jump to those who might not be familiar with where it comes from.
I was a kid when āmy badā showed up in the basketball world (possibly coined by Dikembe Mutumbo), got picked up by American black teens and spread to other generations and races until it eventually just became part of standard colloquial American English. 10 years after first hearing it, I heard a white boomer college professor use it non-ironically, and I realized that it was just something people of all walks of life just said. Now, 20+ years after that, itās still going strong.
Thinking back, I think ādudeā made a similar jump in the 70ās. The TV show Seinfeld popularized a bunch of phrases that entered the lexicon: āyada yada,ā āregift,ā maybe āshiksa.ā āCleanā as an aesthetic descriptor probably became popular after Outkastās 2000 hit āSo Fresh, So Clean,ā even if the song itself reflected existing cultural usage. Post 2010, Iām guessing āsusā has staying power, and definitely jumped generations, largely off of the brief āAmong Usā popularity.
āYeetā and ārizzā have stuck around a bit longer than fleeting teen slang usually does, but it remains to be seen which Gen Z teenage words actually survive regular usage into the 2040ās. Iām guessing the ones that get featured in a popular song or TV show are the ones that have the highest likelihood of long term survival.
I think youāre on the money with yeet, and I think āafā (as in āDark Souls is hard afā) still has a fair bit of usage considering how old it is and how cringe it was for a while.
Cringe, too, for that matter, although I still think ācringeyā is better
Edit: I predict ālow keyā will stick around, too.
I donāt judge āsusā because to me it isnāt as much generational as it is a marker of someone who survived going insane during the COVID lockdown by watching a lot of Mr. Fruit playing Among Us or just playing games with others online.
Weāve been saying sus in Britain for well over a century ta.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sus_law?wprov=sfla1
Cheers Iāll skibidi to that