Language is ever changing and constantly evolving. Over the past several centuries, how we speak to one another, even in English, has changed considerably. Gone are the days of “fortnight” referring to a period of time and “dab” referring to drying things off by tapping it with a fabric. But how exactly did we get here?
“I think it’s just because I’m heavily ingrained on Twitter,” said Berlin Fuqua, a sophomore art major. “I’ve been on the internet for a really long time and I started off at Tumblr, and I feel like me being around some specific people in high school, because a lot of my friends were different than me, they used some of these terminologies.”
Certain words, like “lit,” have taken on a new meaning.
“Lit is like, an exclamation of something you think is cool or hip or admirable,” said Fuqua. “Like, ‘Ah! I did this thing in Cedar Rapids,’ and you’re just like, ‘That’s lit!’”
In other instances, new words have been created entirely.
Sophomore Berlin Fuqua photo by Nathan Heinze
“An interesting one is ‘yeet,’ because it’s used in vocabulary and it’s also used in descriptions of things happening,” said Fuqua. “So, you like, throw something and it’s like a sound effect, it’s like, ‘Yeet!’”
Some terms, however, are much more abstract.
“When I say ‘mood,’ usually it’s like when someone says, ‘Oh, I’m sad’ and I’m like, ‘Mood,’” said Fuqua. “But then sometimes it’s just like really weird stuff, like I could see someone bump into a pillar somewhere on campus, and then they just kinda look at it, and they just walk away and I’m just like, ‘Mood.’”
Sometimes there’s a generational gap when it comes to slang. Emily Griffioen, a senior graphic design major, recounts a time when a pastor at her previous college said one thing and the students heard another. Specifically, there was a campus chapel service entitled “Are you Thirsty?” In more contemporary uses, “thirsty” refers to extreme physical attraction to another person.
Senior Emily Griffioen photo by Nathan Heinze
“So, we had problems to begin with, but we moved into worship and things were going along fine,” said Giffioen. “As the ‘message’ portion, our campus pastor used a skit to get whatever his point was across. Soon, he needed more volunteers to get his point across, so he called more to the stage. It took a while; students didn’t want to go up. Eventually, when the pastor realized there were only guys on stage at this point, he asked, ‘Where are all the thirsty women? Do we not have thirsty women?’ There was a wave of quiet, stifled laughter across the student body that was gathered. Only men went up after that.”
Giffioen said that the MAs later informed the pastor of the alternative meaning of his statement.
One thing is for certain: language will never stop evolving. Words will continue to take on new meaning, and slang will continue to change. While some may have a problem with it, they can feel that way, and that’s totally tubular, man.
