Kathy and I used to host Christmas every year for all of the family. We would try to have all of our children and the Grand Children come to our house for several days before, during and after Christmas. It was wonderful to have the whole family together. As the years passed it became harder and harder to pull this off. Several years ago while the family was still coming home at Christmas, Kathy and I discussed and decided that we would look into Slang. Identify some words that teenagers were using and use them when the Grand Children were at home and they would think we were cool. We found a list of words and abbreviations and acronyns that were in common use and Kathy typed a list and we started studying the words and were prepared to use these when they all came home. I cannot remember what happened but we never brought up the words or the list we had created so it never happened. The other day I was thinking about today’s slang and that prompted me to do some research and maybe start using some of the terms…again to make the Grand Children think I was cool and in touch with things. I had started the research and I was talking to one of my Grandsons Michael who works at Panera Bread and he commented to me that he had encountered “a Karen”. I was a bit stunned. I had just identified this term so I couldn’t believe that in a casual conversation he used it. What it means is a reference to a middle aged woman who is very petty and usually takes it out on people in the service industry. An example would be a woman who sends her drink back because it didn’t have enough ice. Obviously this is just one term. As I searched the internet I came across a plethora of words, abbreviations and acronyms. I will only mention a few in this article. If you are a parent some of these would be good to know. The interesting thing about slang is that the same words don’t always mean the same thing over time. Their use changes and starts to take on different meanings. Things in the slang area are fluid. For example lit used to be a reference to something amazing or interesting like…” a party was lit”. Now for the most part it means that someone is drunk.
I want to mention a few acronymns some of these you may recognize…
GOAT…Greatest Of All Time
OMG…Oh My Gosh or Oh My God
FOMO…Fear Of Missing Out
YOLO…You Only Live Once
LMIRL…Let’s Meet In Real Life
TBH…To Be Honest
BFF…Best Friends Forever
WTTP…Want To Trade Photos
POS…Parents Over Shoulder…can also be Piece of Sh..T
These are the most common acronyms that I found.
Moving on there are some other words that I thought were worth mentioning.
Tea…gossip, news
Spill the Tea…someone wants to hear the latest gossip
Dope…cool or awesome
Sic…cool or sweet
Gucci…good, cool or going well
Thirsty…trying to get attention
Bae…Before anyone else…to describe a romantic partner or good friend
Cap…fake or a lie
Emo…someone who is emotional or a drama queen
Fam…group of friends
No Cap…totally true or no lie
Noob…a person who doesn’t know what they are doing…a newbie
Periodt…End of statement…”That’s the best Ice Cream Periodt.”
Squad…group of friends that hang out together
Sus…suspicious, shady, not to be trusted
Throw shade…to give someone a dirty look
Tight…in a close relationship or friendship
Tool…someone who is stupid, obnoxious, rude or embarrasses themselves
Crashy…Crazy and trashy, like a train wreck
Hangry…hungry and angry
Tope…tight and dope
Finsta…a hidden account that parents cannot monitor
I am going to stop here for now. I will offer more in a future post.
