Global slang

● Aliven.✎ 2

Voice Chat

Talking to strangers while playing — voice chat, 'VC' — from TeamSpeak into Xbox Live into Discord, and the record's entry for the room where friendships were made and slurs were learned, in roughly equal measure. 'Hop in VC' is an invitation to a second life.

▸ 2003peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Tsundere

A character type — hostile ('tsun tsun') on the outside, warm ('dere dere') underneath — coined on Japanese forums around 2002 and now used by the English internet for any person, cat or customer-service bot that is rude before it is kind. The record's entry for the archetype, and for the phrase 'it's not like I wrote this entry for you or anything'.

▸ 2002peak 2010still up

● Aliveinterj.✎ 2

Alter

'Old man', but really 'dude' or 'whoa' — the German interjection ('Alter!') that opens a sentence of shock or address, and that German internet and gaming spaces made a fixture in the 2000s, later exported by German YouTubers to anyone who watched them. The record's entry for the exclamation that calls everyone old and means it kindly.

▸ 2000peak 2015still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Baka

'Idiot', 'fool' — the mildest Japanese insult, learned by anglophones from a thousand subtitled scoldings and used online as an affectionate 'you dope', before a 2020 Among Us joke welded it to 'sussy' and made it, briefly, unbearable. The record's entry for the insult that is somehow a compliment.

▸ 2000peak 2020still up

● Aliveadv.✎ 3

Bare

'A lot', 'very' — 'bare people', 'bare jokes' — as the Multicultural London English intensifier that means the opposite of its dictionary definition and is understood by every British person under forty. The record's entry for the word that means 'many' and looks like 'none'.

▸ 2000peak 2012still up

● Aliveadj.✎ 2

Buff (British)

Attractive — 'buff' — as the London slang word that predates 'peng' and means the same, and the record's entry for the adjective that also means muscular and, in a game, improved. Context has kept the three apart for twenty years.

▸ 2000peak 2012still up

● Aliveadj.✎ 3

Butters

Ugly — 'butters' — as the London slang's cruellest adjective, with an etymology nobody agrees on ('everything but her face' is the folk version). The record's entry for the word, which is filed for completeness and said about nobody the record knows.

▸ 2000peak 2012still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Digga

'Bro', 'dude' — the German vocative from Hamburg hip-hop of the 1990s ('Dicker', thick one, softened), which by the late 2010s was the standard address of German youth online and was a Jugendwort finalist in 2020. The record's entry for the word that every German under twenty-five says and every German over fifty asks about.

▸ 2000peak 2019still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Ends

One's neighbourhood — 'my ends' — as the London slang word for home turf, and the record's entry for the geography of a postcode, which grime made a genre and the internet made a hashtag. 'Come to my ends' is an invitation and a warning.

▸ 2000peak 2012still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Mandem

One's group of male friends — 'the mandem' — with 'gyaldem' for the women, as the London slang collective that the internet adopted for any group of lads. The record's entry for the word, and for the 'roadman', who is its most famous member.

▸ 2000peak 2012still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Wey

'Dude', 'mate' — the Mexican vocative (also 'güey'), attached to the end of every sentence by every Mexican under fifty and heard, by anglophones online, so often that it entered their own sentences. The record's entry for the word that means 'friend', 'idiot', and 'you', depending entirely on the eyebrows.

▸ 2000peak 2016still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

Yeah Nah

'Yeah, nah' — the Australian and New Zealand 'no', which acknowledges the question before declining it, and which the internet's fascination with Australians made a meme around 2016, alongside 'nah yeah', which is 'yes'. The record's entry for the two-word phrase that has caused more confusion abroad than the whole of Australian slang combined.

▸ 2000peak 2016still up

● Aliveinterj.✎ 3

Kekeke (Korean Laugh)

ㅋㅋㅋ — the Korean typed laugh, a row of the consonant 'k', born in PC-bang chat and StarCraft lobbies in the late 1990s and encountered by the wider internet as 'kekeke', the sound of a Zerg rush. The record's entry for the laugh that has a strategy attached.

▸ 1999peak 2012still up

● Aliveinterj.✎ 3

Jajaja

The Spanish typed laugh — 'ja' being 'ha' — which anglophones first met in mixed chatrooms, misread as 'jah-jah-jah', and eventually understood as the same laugh with a different letter. The record's entry for the laugh whose length scales with sincerity and whose vowels change with mood ('jejeje' is sly; 'jijiji' is worse).

▸ 1998peak 2012still up

● Aliveabbr.✎ 3

MDR

'Mort de rire' — dying of laughter — the French 'lol', born in late-1990s chat and still the standard typed laugh of the francophone internet, which anglophones encounter and, for a moment, read as a medical term. The record's entry for the laugh that is a cause of death.

▸ 1998peak 2010still up

● Aliveabbr.✎ 2

OOC

'Out of character' — the roleplay marker, from 1990s MUDs and forum games, that separates the player from the persona ('((ooc: brb))'), and that fandom later borrowed for any portrayal of a character that does not fit them. The record's entry for the acronym with two lives, both of them about who is talking.

▸ 1998peak 2012still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Bruv

'Brother' — 'bruv' — as the London address for anyone, and the record's entry for the word that is said to friends, strangers and bus drivers, and that the internet uses as a marker of Britishness alongside 'innit' and 'mate'. 'Bruv' is closer than 'mate' and further than 'fam'.

▸ 1995peak 2010still up

● Aliveinterj.✎ 2

Safe

'Thanks', 'okay', 'good' — 'safe' — as the London slang word that does the job of five, and the record's entry for the acknowledgement that means everything is fine. 'Safe, bro' ends a transaction; 'he's safe' is a character reference.

▸ 1995peak 2010still up

● Aliveadj.✎ 3

Shook

Shocked, rattled, unable to cope — 'I'm shook' — from a 1995 rap record into the 2016–18 internet, where it was said about a plot twist, a bill and a good haircut. The record's entry for the past participle that became an adjective, and for the two decades it waited.

▸ 1995peak 2017still up

● Aliveinterj.✎ 2

Eh (Canadian)

'Eh' — the Canadian tag that asks for agreement, that Canadians use less than the world thinks and more than they admit, and that the internet turned into the entire national character around 2010 (with maple syrup, apology and a moose). The record's entry for the syllable that a country has been reduced to, eh.

▸ 1990peak 2010still up

● Alivev.✎ 3

Finna

'About to' — 'finna', from 'fixing to' — as the AAVE future tense that the internet adopted around 2015 and Merriam-Webster in 2021. The record's entry for the verb, its origin, and the distance between the two, which is most of the story of internet slang.

▸ 1990peak 2017still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Lad

A young man who drinks, jokes and does not think — the lad — as a 1990s British type that a 2012 website turned into a brand and the internet into a verdict: 'what a lad', 'lads, lads, lads'. The record's entry for the noun, and for the 'lad' as a compliment that is also a warning.

▸ 1990peak 2013still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Maccas

McDonald's — as Australians have called it since at least the 1980s, and as the company itself agreed to in 2013 by putting 'Macca's' on the signs, which the internet regarded as the first time a brand had surrendered to slang. The record's entry for the nickname that got its own signage.

▸ 1990peak 2013still up

● Aliveadj.✎ 3

Sound

Good, decent, reliable — 'he's sound' — as the Northern and Irish word for the highest praise a person can receive without emotion, and the record's entry for the adjective that means 'you can trust him' in one syllable. 'Sound as a pound' is the full form.

▸ 1990peak 2012still up

● Aliveinterj.✎ 3

Wagwan

'What's going on' — the Jamaican greeting, via London, as the opener of a million messages and, since about 2010, a word that white politicians should not say and have. The record's entry for the greeting, and for the people who should use it, who are not the record.

▸ 1990peak 2010still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Bogan

The Australian word for an uncouth, flannel-wearing, ute-driving compatriot — an insult since the 1980s, a proud identity since about 2010, and a meme category that the wider internet met through 'straya' compilations. The record's entry for the noun that is a slur in some mouths and a costume in others.

▸ 1985peak 2012still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Otaku

The Japanese word for an obsessive fan — originally a pejorative, coined in a 1983 magazine column — which anglophone anime fans borrowed in the 1990s as a badge and have worn, with varying levels of irony, ever since. The record's entry for the word that means one thing in Akihabara and something gentler in Ohio.

▸ 1983peak 2008still up

● Aliveinterj.✎ 3

Innit

'Isn't it' — as a tag for any statement regardless of grammar: 'he's coming, innit', 'I went, innit'. The record's entry for the most versatile word in British slang, which agrees, asks, and ends a sentence, and which the internet uses as a marker of Britishness itself.

▸ 1980peak 2005still up

● Aliveadj.✎ 3

Kawaii

'Cute' — the Japanese adjective that became a whole aesthetic (Hello Kitty, rounded handwriting, pastel everything) and then, via fansub forums and Tumblr, the English internet's word for anything small, round and adorable. The record's entry for the loanword that arrived with a mascot attached.

▸ 1980peak 2012still up

● Aliveadj.✎ 2

Salty (Slang)

Bitter, annoyed, a sore loser — 'salty' — from 1930s American slang via AAVE into gaming and the 2015 internet, where it described anyone upset about losing. The record has 'salt'; this is the adjective, which is older than the internet and was waiting for it.

▸ 1938peak 2015still up

● Aliveadj.✎ 3

Woke (Original)

'Stay woke' — aware, especially of racial injustice — from a 1938 blues recording via AAVE into a 2014 movement's watchword, before it was taken as an insult by everyone who disagreed. The record has 'woke'; this is the original, filed so that the history is somewhere.

▸ 1938peak 2016still up

● Aliveadj.✎ 2

Grand (Irish)

'Fine', 'okay', 'adequate' — 'grand' — as the Irish word that means the opposite of grand and is the answer to every question: 'how are you?' 'Grand.' The record's entry for the adjective that has been used to describe a funeral, a hangover and a wedding, all correctly.

▸ 1900peak 2015still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Mate

'Friend', or 'person I am about to disagree with' — 'mate' — as the British word that is affectionate at the start of a sentence and a threat at the end: 'mate, no' versus 'no, mate'. The record's entry for the word the internet uses to sound British, and for the tone, which it cannot type.

▸ 1900peak 2015still up

● Alivephr.✎ 3

Nae Bother

'No problem' — 'nae bother' — as the Scottish acknowledgement that the internet adopted as shorthand for Scotland itself, alongside 'och aye' (which nobody says) and 'aye' (which everyone does). The record's entry for the phrase, and for Scottish Twitter, which is the funniest place on the internet and knows it.

▸ 1900peak 2015still up