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TikTok is changing how Gen Z speaks
On social media, new words spread far and fast.
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At least 100 English words are produced, or given new meaning, on TikTok a year, says an expert.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Economist
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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.
