If you've noticed kids' conversations sound a little different this back-to-school season, you're not alone.
Words like "skibidi," "sigma" and "gyatt" now pepper tweens' sentences, and "Ohio" is more than just a U.S. state: it's a state of being.
The issue came up at 11-year-old Dashiell Chinn's summer camp, where he said his counsellor banned the word "skibidi," citing its annoyingness and lack of meaning.
Dashiell's dad Wyatt Chinn said he understands the impulse.
"That actually is exactly why we tell Dashiell he shouldn't swear," Chinn said. "Because it'll stunt your vocabulary. You're at an age where it's very important to build out your vocabulary and use words that have actual, specific meanings."
"Skibidi" can be used as an adjective or adverb – sometimes replacing "cool" or "bad" – or it can be repeated ad nauseam for "comedic" effect. It was popularized in a series of YouTube videos called "Skibidi Toilet" that Chinn said "haunts" his dreams.
But the word's meaninglessness may be part of its allure, said Sali Tagliamonte, a professor of sociolinguistics at the University of Toronto, who studies language change.
She first heard the word when she was in England, going into different classrooms and teaching teens about language.
"They thought it was a big joke against adults who didn't know what it meant, and they would just use it to confound the adults in the room," Tagliamonte said.
The word's popularity is highest among tweens and young teens: members of an age group who want to separate themselves from both little kids and adults.
New slang often bubbles up in this demographic, she noted, as kids move to larger schools or start having a different cohort of classmates for each class. They're exposed to different people, and therefore different language.
What's different from past generations, Tagliamonte said, is the speed of language change.
"There's lots more ways to communicate," she said. "It's not just speaking on the street but texting on our phones and listening to podcasts and checking in ... wherever we're going online.
That, she said, isn't a bad thing.
"Nobody should be too concerned about new words," she said. "They should just wonder how they came to be and watch where they go. It's fascinating to me."
But those quick changes can lead to confusion as the meaning of new words shifts.
Chinn said he's found himself correcting Dashiell's use of words like "sus" – which is short for suspicious or suspect – and "sigma," which members of gen Alpha (the successors to gen Z) have started using to mean "cool."
But Chinn said that word in particular worries him, because it's adapted from online content made by boys and young men who tend to vilify women. Those boys don't identify as either "alpha males," who are successful with women, or "betas," who they believe are weak.
"So they say I'm a 'sigma,' because I'm still dominant but I don't have any friends and girls don't like me," Chinn said.
He doesn't want his son using words that validate that worldview, he said.
"I don't know if they're just perverting words into their own slang, or if they're using them incorrectly," he said, before conceding: "Or maybe it's evolving."
Glossary of terms
"Chat": a generic term of address for an audience; a sort of plural "you" born of online content creators who stream videos of themselves gaming, in which they address live viewers who provide commentary in the chat section.
"Fanum Tax": stealing food between friends, based on the username of Twitch streamer Fanum.
"Gyatt": a big butt; short for an overenunciated pronunciation of "goddamn."
"Ohio": crazy, strange; based on funny stories that came out of Ohio.
"Rizz": short for charisma. See also: "Rizzler" for a charming person.
"Sigma": Cool; adapted from an online subculture of boys who don't identify as either "alpha males," who are successful with women, or "betas," who they believe are weak.
"Skibidi": we won't even try to define this one.
With files from Cassandra Szklarski.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 16, 2024.
