Can you imagine having to discuss with your friends without slang? Of course, you’d have to leave many things unsaid. Slang helps us express feelings that we can’t possibly express with any other word. But where did these versatile words originate from? How did they come to mean what we use them to express today?
Hipster
Hipster is slang derived from the word ‘hip,’ which means being tapped into the tenor of the times. Hip first became popular in the 20th-century jazz era, when people took part in the music scene in African American neighborhoods.
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Initially, hipster was used to refer to someone at the forefront of a trend before it became popular. But now, a hipster is a know-it-all who always wants to appear cooler than others.
Ghosting
Ghosting is one of the most popular slang we use today. Although it doesn’t have a clear origin, it was derived from the word ‘ghost.’ Since ghosts never interact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say the meaning of the slang came from the attribute of ghosts.
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The word ‘ghosting’ probably gained popularity after the 2021 dating app boom. Today, ghosting describes the act of someone quietly leaving a conversation online. As long as chatting is still a way of communicating, this slang will continue to be common.
Legit
Many people think this slang came into existence after MC Hammer released his 1991 hit, “2 Legit 2 Quit.” However, the slang has been around for some decades before then. The slang originated in theater groups around the 1950s or 1960s.
Courtesy: Peter Borough Movie History
The word was used to describe legitimate drama, which was another way of saying ‘a well-written piece’. The slang, legit, is used today to mean something authentic, real, original, or dope.
Throw shade
The slang first became a common language after it was used on RuPaul’s reality TV show, “Drag Race.” Since then, people have used shade-throwing to carry out passive-aggressive acts in real life and also online.
Courtesy: Rotten Tomatoes
The term, throw shade, is a way of describing the act of insulting someone. The slang has also evolved into another slang term, ‘shade thrower, ‘ which means someone skilled in insulting another.
Basic
The term ‘basic’ became popular on the internet around 2017. However, it existed about a decade before then; basic appeared in the urban dictionary in 2009. Interestingly, the meaning of the slang has remained the same for all these years.
Courtesy: Freepik
Basic is used to describe someone who is a conformist and always follows the mainstream. ‘Basic bitch’ is a diminutive of the term; this slang is used to refer to a person who has nothing original or unique about them.
