Every generation has slang, but Gen Alpha’s has a particularly unhinged quality, some parents say. Still, experts say their bad rep isn’t totally deserved.

In the beginning, there was “skibidi.”

It appeared abruptly in the lexicons of kids under 14 — the first slang term unique to Generation Alpha. Parents’ ears perked up as they began to hear it around the dinner table. It could mean bad, cool, or nothing at all, their kids explained. Then a dozen more incomprehensible terms followed suit.

Gen Z’s “slay” and “tea” are officially vintage, giving way to “sigma,” “gyatt” and “fanum tax.”

Everyone’s getting whiplash.

    • Annoyed_🦀 🏅@monyet.cc
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 month ago

      Well it’s different from cool, hot, or ass because skibidi and gyatt isn’t a real word. I never heard a new word that got so many meaning shoved into them so fast it become meaningless.

      • lemmyng@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        skibidi and gyatt isn’t a real word

        Every word that we use wasn’t a real word until it started getting used. Rejecting new words is a prescriptivist fallacy. If anything this is an exciting time, because we get to study accelerated language changes.