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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   2922 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 24, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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GenZ neologisms. Every passing day I slowly find myself using more and more of them. The latest addition to my arsenal is "rizz", and its variation of "w rizz" and "l rizz". To those unaware rizz is what the millenials called "game", the ability to swoon the other gender. I dont think any such proper phrase exists that succintly sums up the concept of win rizz and lose rizz. New phrases for new things.

In my headcannon, neologisms dont replace old words/ideas, they come into existence to describe a subtle variation of a situation/experience that the old phrase didnt demarcate well enough. Rizz is not the same thing as game or even charisma, its a superset of those concepts. Bussing isnt delicious, it means delicious and addicting. These specialized neologisms might just dilute over time into their old vague versions. And the day I cant keep up, ill look like an old man using old language.

I still find it a hilarious etymological coincidence that, despite the total lack of causal connection, “based” ended up the opposite of “debased.”

People used to think that the spread of modern telecommunications would eliminate all language and dialect differences, but I find it fascinating to observe that at the same time developing countries around the world are crushing local languages and dialects with the power of public schooling, the rate of language change has probably been accelerated by the rapid dispersal of new memes and vocabulary online.

Combined with the splintering of the internet into thousands of separate communities defined by common interest or ideology, each with their own way of speaking, I can envision a time when in addition to our national languages we must all be conversant in entirely different languages unique to these groups.

As a Millennial, the older I get, the more I slowly build up a desire to purge my personal lexicon of current-day slang--it's just gonna be cringey once I'm biologically older, and there's little avoiding that. I figure I might as well embrace my age and go for oatmeal-plain language, or even retreat to 90's-speak.

It can be fun to insert up to the minute slang into a longer expression. The key is to use it correctly, but carefully enunciated as though gently placing the phrase into your statement with verbal tongs, and without breaking your normal flow. Appending "as the kids say" is just gilding the lily, however.

When you have kids of an age to be embarrassed by their parents, it's quite good fun to intentionally misuse (or even properly use) slang.

I'm personally a fan of "in the ragged parlance of the youth," as coined by Penny Arcade one time.

Honestly, I have no clue how people older than me keep up with the pace at which this is progressing - I already seem to be an old man using old language despite the fact that I am in the age range of Gen Z. I simply haven't picked up on many of their neologisms, and even with those I do understand, I have real difficulty using them in a seemingly natural way (and often come off incredibly awkwardly).

I think it mostly just helps to be on certain platforms. Not the really big and visible ones like Twitter or YT, but places like Twitch or Tumblr. There's also always Urban Dictionary, for however much weight you can place on that.

I am far beyond the age where I should even understand it, but I love no cap as a synonym for the honest truth.

It is hilarious when you stumble into a comment section of obvious bullshit and the comments are filled with 🧢 (It's a cap).

Huh, so that's what it means.

The likely etymology of that is interesting, as "no cap" might come from a bit of Twitch-"speak." On the website Twitch.tv, one of the global chat emotes (i.e. free for literally everyone to use) is "Kappa," which is a greyscale, low-resolution image of a headshot of one of Twitch's founding members (specifically Justin Kan himself, I believe). The Kappa emote is generally used to represent sarcasm, likely due to the monochrome smirk (or, at least, at that level of detail, it sure looks like a smirk) conveying a feeling of smugness and irony suited to Internet-dweller sensibilities.

So "no cap" probably started as "no Kap(pa)" and mutated from there.

Okay, this explains "kappa" which I remember from some time back and which I then assumed was meaningless .

At least the way I heard it used made it seem meaningless.

Know Your Meme suggests a different etymology, dating from as far back as the 80s in a rap context, and much more recently popularized via the Atlanta hip-hop scene. Wiktionary points specifically to the 2017 rap track "No Cap" by Future and Young Thug.

That's a lot more plausible, yeah.

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