62 terms

Slang glossary

How people typed in 2010: the abbreviations of instant messaging, the taunts of forums and games, and the new verbs of Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.

#FollowFriday / #FFnounSupported: The weekly Twitter ritual of recommending accounts to follow."#FF @biz @ev @jack"Origin: Twitter, January 2009
1337 (leet)adjectiveVerified: Elite; the hacker-style alphabet of numbers and symbols, ironic by 2010."1337 h4x0r"Origin: BBS culture, 1980s
afkphraseSupported: Away from keyboard; the gamer's brb."afk 5 min, pizza's here"Origin: MUDs and IRC
appnounVerified: A smartphone application; the American Dialect Society's 2010 word of the year. "There's an app for that.""is there an app for that?"Origin: Apple's App Store, 2008
banhammernounEditorial: A moderator's power to ban users, imagined as a hammer."the mods brought out the banhammer"Origin: Forums and games, 2000s
bffnounSupported: Best friends forever; also "bffl"."me and my bff at the Bieber concert"Origin: 1990s; texting popularised it
brbinterjectionSupported: Be right back; announced in chat before stepping away from MSN or AIM."brb mom needs the computer"Origin: IRC and instant messaging, 1990s
bumpverbSupported: Posting in a forum thread to push it back to the top of the list."bump, still looking for a Halo: Reach group"Origin: Forums, 1990s
check in / mayorverb / nounSupported: To announce your location on Foursquare (or, from August, Facebook Places); the most frequent visitor became a venue's mayor."just ousted Dave as mayor of Starbucks"Origin: Foursquare, 2009
cool story brophraseSupported: Sarcastic dismissal of a boring or pointless post."cool story bro"Origin: Forums; popularised around 2010
derp / herp derpinterjectionSupported: A noise of stupidity, used to mock someone or oneself."forgot my password again, derp"Origin: South Park creators' 1998 film BASEketball; widespread by 2010
epic failnounSupported: A spectacular failure; the superlative of FAIL."Digg v4 = epic fail"Origin: Gaming and forum slang, 2000s
Facebook officialadjectiveEditorial: A relationship confirmed by changing your relationship status; "FBO"."it's not real until it's Facebook official"Origin: Facebook users, late 2000s
facepalmnoun / verbSupported: The gesture of despair at stupidity, used as a one-word reply."*facepalm*"Origin: Popularised by the Picard image around 2008-2009
fmlinterjectionSupported: F*** my life; the sigh of the 2010 status update, popularised by the site FMyLife."dropped my new iPhone 4 on day one. fml"Origin: FMyLife (fmylife.com), 2009
friend / unfriendverbVerified: To add or remove someone on Facebook; "unfriend" was the New Oxford American Dictionary's 2009 word of the year."she unfriended me after the wall post"Origin: Facebook, 2004 onwards
ftwphraseSupported: For the win; enthusiastic endorsement of anything."Robot Unicorn Attack ftw"Origin: Gaming slang, 2000s
g2ginterjectionSupported: Got to go; the other half of "g2g ttyl"."g2g dinner"Origin: Instant messaging
hashtag (#)nounVerified: A word prefixed with # to tag a tweet; proposed by Chris Messina in 2007, linked by Twitter in 2009, everywhere by 2010."#FollowFriday"Origin: Twitter, August 2007
I see what you did therephraseEditorial: Acknowledging a pun or a sly joke."'Bed Intruder Song' on the Billboard charts... I see what you did there"Origin: Forum and image-macro phrase, 2000s
idkphraseSupported: I don't know; also "idc" (I don't care) and "idek" (I don't even know)."idk maybe see inception again"Origin: Texting and IM
imho / imophraseSupported: In my (humble) opinion; the standard forum hedge before a strong opinion."imho Firefox is still better than Chrome"Origin: Usenet, 1980s
inb4phraseSupported: In before: predicting a reply before it arrives."inb4 someone posts the Fail Whale"Origin: 4chan, mid-2000s
irlphraseSupported: In real life, as opposed to online; a distinction that still felt meaningful in 2010."met my WoW guild irl at BlizzCon"Origin: Usenet and MUDs, 1990s
jkinterjectionSupported: Just kidding; softening a message after the fact."you're the worst. jk"Origin: Texting and IM
kthxbaiinterjectionSupported: OK, thanks, bye; a curt lolspeak sign-off."send me the file kthxbai"Origin: Lolspeak, 2007
like (verb)verbVerified: To click the thumbs-up on a post; from April 2010 also on any website with the Like button."37 people like this"Origin: Facebook, February 2009; the web-wide button April 2010
lolinterjectionVerified: Laughing out loud; by 2010 mostly a punctuation mark meaning "I am being friendly"."cant make it tonight lol"Origin: Usenet and BBS chat, late 1980s
lurk moarphraseSupported: Read more before posting; the 4chan reply to a newcomer's naive question."lurk moar before you ask what a rage comic is"Origin: 4chan, mid-2000s
memenounSupported: An idea, image or joke that spreads and mutates online; in 2010 the word was crossing from Know Your Meme into ordinary speech."Sad Keanu is my favourite meme of the year"Origin: Richard Dawkins, 1976; internet usage from the 1990s
necroverbEditorial: Reviving a long-dead forum thread, usually frowned upon."nice necro, this thread is from 2007"Origin: Forums, 2000s
nom nom nominterjectionSupported: The sound of eating, from Cookie Monster via LOLcats."pizza. nom nom nom"Origin: LOLcat captions, 2007
noob / n00bnounSupported: A newcomer, usually an incompetent or annoying one; "newb" was the kinder form."stop feeding, noob"Origin: Gaming and leetspeak, 1990s-2000s
o rly?phraseSupported: Oh, really? Sarcastic disbelief, with an owl."o rly? ya rly."Origin: Something Awful, 2003; the owl macro 2005
omginterjectionSupported: Oh my god; added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2011, having peaked in texts and Facebook statuses long before."OMG iPhone 4 has a front camera"Origin: First recorded in a 1917 letter; text messaging revived it
over 9000phraseSupported: An absurdly large number, from a Dragon Ball Z dub line."the number of FarmVille requests is over 9000"Origin: 4chan, 2006
pics or it didn't happenphraseEditorial: A demand for proof of a claim made online."you met Bieber? pics or it didn't happen"Origin: Forums, mid-2000s
PM mephraseSupported: Send me a private message on the forum."PM me for the torrent link"Origin: Forums
pokeverb / nounSupported: A Facebook feature that notified someone you had poked them, and nothing else. Nobody knew what it meant."why does my aunt keep poking me"Origin: Facebook, 2004
pwnedverbSupported: Owned, utterly defeated; a typo of "owned" that became gaming's favourite taunt."got pwned in Halo: Reach all night"Origin: Warcraft or Counter-Strike lore, early 2000s
reblogverbSupported: To repost someone's Tumblr post to your own blog, with or without commentary; Tumblr's core verb."this got 40,000 notes after one reblog"Origin: Tumblr, 2007
refudiateverbVerified: Sarah Palin's accidental blend of refute and repudiate, tweeted in July 2010 and named New Oxford American Dictionary's word of the year."Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate"Origin: Twitter, July 2010
roflinterjectionSupported: Rolling on the floor laughing; the stronger sibling of lol, often "roflmao"."roflmao at that double rainbow guy"Origin: Usenet, 1990s
Rule 34nounSupported: "If it exists, there is porn of it": one of the Rules of the Internet, from a 2003 webcomic."Rule 34, no exceptions"Origin: Webcomic by Peter Morley-Souter, 2003; 4chan's Rules of the Internet
sextingnounSupported: Sending sexual texts or photos by phone; a moral-panic word of 2009-2010."a school assembly about sexting"Origin: Media coverage, 2005 onwards
signounSupported: The signature image or text under every forum post, often an animated banner."nice sig, is that from your guild?"Origin: Usenet and forums
smhinterjectionSupported: Shaking my head; disappointment in three letters, rising on Twitter in 2010."AT&T killed unlimited data. smh"Origin: Forums and Twitter, late 2000s
tbhphraseSupported: To be honest."tbh I still use MSN"Origin: IM and forums
the cloudnounEditorial: Servers somewhere else; the 2010 buzzword for storing files and running software online."it's all in the cloud now"Origin: Tech marketing, late 2000s
The GamenounEditorial: A mind game everyone is playing; thinking about it means you just lost. Posting "I lost the game" made everyone else lose."I just lost the game"Origin: Uncertain; widely known on forums by the mid-2000s
tl;drphraseSupported: Too long; didn't read. A complaint about a long post, or a one-line summary placed at the end of one."tl;dr Digg v4 sucks, we're all on Reddit now"Origin: Forums and 4chan, mid-2000s
totes / obvsadverbEditorial: Totally and obviously, shortened; the texting abbreviations that were about to become spoken slang."totes coming to the party, obvs"Origin: Texting, late 2000s
trendingverbSupported: Appearing in Twitter's trending topics list; by extension, popular right now."#Inception is trending worldwide"Origin: Twitter, 2008
troll / trollingnoun / verbVerified: Someone who provokes others online for fun, or the act of doing so. "Don't feed the trolls.""he's just trolling the YouTube comments"Origin: Usenet, early 1990s
ttylinterjectionSupported: Talk to you later; the sign-off of MSN Messenger and texting."g2g ttyl"Origin: Instant messaging, 1990s
Tumblr famousadjectiveEditorial: Having a large following on Tumblr and nowhere else."she's Tumblr famous for her GIF sets"Origin: Tumblr users, around 2010
tweet / RTnoun / verbVerified: A Twitter post, and RT for retweet: repeating someone's tweet, by hand ("RT @user") or, from late 2009, with the button."RT @kimmel: my favorite video of the year http://bit.ly/..."Origin: Twitter, 2006-2009
u mad?phraseSupported: A taunt implying the other person is angry, often paired with Trollface."u mad bro?"Origin: Forums and rap culture; popular on 4chan and YouTube around 2010
viraladjectiveEditorial: Spreading rapidly by sharing; "going viral" was the ambition of every 2010 video, ad and blog post."the Old Spice ad went viral overnight"Origin: Marketing term, 1990s; mainstream by 2010
wall / wall postnounSupported: The public message area of a Facebook profile; writing on someone's wall was the 2010 equivalent of a public shout-out."happy birthday!!! -posted on your wall"Origin: Facebook, 2004
winnounSupported: The opposite of fail; something excellent, also "full of win"."the Old Spice guy's responses are pure win"Origin: Forum slang, 2000s
wtfinterjectionSupported: What the f***; the reaction to anything confusing, from a Facebook redesign to a Chatroulette stranger."wtf is a vuvuzela"Origin: Usenet, 1980s