10 American slang words 2021
Naturally, slang often appears in social media comments, but can even make their way into surveys, customer reviews and other feedback data. While the OdinAnswers Platform is smart enough to guess correctly (using machine learning) what part of speech any of these non-dictionary terms are likely to be part of, identifying the specific meaning of these brand and often changing terms can be more challenging. For this reason, I began keeping track of various slang terms and their relative popularity, noting the appearance of any new ones, and figuring out what they mean. This may sound easy based on the context of the sentence they are used, but slang terms often change in meaning over time and are used differently geographically as well.
Since I started blogging about my list annually, it’s become one of our most popular blog posts of the year. So here is this year’s Top -10, as well as the historic top 10, however, I’ll start with the four brand new terms to the list this year.
- “Rona” or “Vid”, “as in “The Rona” or “The Vid” which you’ve probably guessed refers to COVID-19. But “COVID-19” sounds way too formal for use in everyday speak with friends, plus a little humor is good medicine.
- “Sus” is also one of those words that while used and understood relatively widely, does seem to be a bit less popular in the North East for some reason. The word itself means ‘Suspect’ or ‘Suspicious’ as in “That’s Sus” i.e. “That’s Suspicious” or “you’re so sus” as ”you’re so Suspicious”.
- “Simp”. A “Simp” is someone who is subservient to someone else. Most often a male who wants to impress a woman, or women in general, and therefore does anything for them, putting anything else second. While it originally referred only to males, we’ve also seen it being used across genders lately.
- “Poggers”, “Pog” or “Pog Champ” is the 4th new word on this years’ list. This one originated from online gaming. The popularity of “Poggers” was helped by COVID Quarantines, with more online gaming and communication via video channels including the Twitch Video platform. The term which comes from a game, initially became an emotive on the Twitch video platform, and refers to a specific emoticon available on Twitch which depicts a surprised-looking Pepe the Frog. The word “poggers” is used to express excitement during a game when something exciting occurs.
- Yeet – Originally a straightforward Hip Hop dance move, Yeet has expanded incredibly and can now be used as an exclamation, a verb, or even a noun. “Yeet, it’s 2020!” “I’m going to Yeet this ball over the fence!”. Basically, it can be used to describe anything done with vigor.
- Lit … A few years ago, as Lit began to change in meaning, it skyrocketed up in usage. Initially lit most often referred to being intoxicated (“He’s lit.” “Let’s get lit.”). Still, as the term changed in meaning to indicate that something is exciting, fresh or worthwhile, as when used in a phrase like “Come on down to the party, it’s lit!”.
- Cap or Capping – A brand new term on our list this year, a “Cap” is no longer the funny insult/roast it was when you went to school. Nor is the primary meaning shooting someone as in “capping someone” or “putting a cap” in someone. A “Cap” as it is used today is a lie or saying something false. Conversely, “No Cap!” means something like “seriously” or “No BS.” Or “no lie!” It can also be used as a verb, i.e., “Stop Capping!”.
- Bet… Just as Cap has a new purpose, so does Bet. Often slang terms can reverse in terms of the original meaning of the word. Bet has moved from a simple term indicating agreement, e.g., “want to go to the movies?” “Sure, Bet!” to the complete opposite, a term connoting doubt, sarcasm, and disagreement. In other words, a term that initially basically meant “yes” now means “no.” For instance, “Yo, can you help me clean my room?” “Bet (leaves walks out of the door).” The new meaning is basically a sarcastic “No.” That said, Bet can still be used in just its original meaning of “Yes, ok” as well. It’s just cooler than ok.
- Dope – Dope is still dope. i.e., high in quality or mind-blowing. “Fire,” is a close synonym.
- Fire… Fire is like Dope, it’s something awesome, excellent, crazy amazing – the Bomb! “Yo, those shoes are Fire!”
source: 10 American slang words 2021, OdinAnswers
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Vid – Sus – Simp – Poggers – Yeet – Lit – Cap – Bet – Dope – Fire
- a person who is subservient to someone else …
- anything done with vigor …
- when you lie …
- excitement when something exciting occurs during a game …
- high in quality …
- when someone is suspicious, he is …
- a sarcastic No or a cool OK …
- COVID-19 …
- when something is exciting, fresh or worthwhile, it is …
- when something is awesome …
key: 1. Simp;2. Yeet; 3. Cap; 4. Poggers; 5. Dope/Fire; 6. Sus; 7. Bet; 8. Vid; 9. Lit; 10. Fire/Dope
| surveys | sondaggi |
| to guess | indovinare |
| to identify | identificare |
| to keep track of | tenere traccia |
| to figure out | risolvere |
| context | contesto |
| suspect | sospetto |
| suspicious | sospettoso |
| subservient | servile |
| therefore | perciò |
| while | intanto, mentre |
| initially | inizialmente |
| emotive | emotivo |
| to depict | raffigurare |
| to occur | occorrere |
| to expand | espandersi |
| exclamation | esclamazione |
| vigor | vigore |
| to skyrocket up | andare alle stelle |
| intoxicated | ubriaco, ebbro |
| to indicate | indicare |
| insult/roast | insulto |
| to reverse | invertire |
| to connote | connotare |
| mind-blowing | sorprendente, sconvolgente |
| awesome | fantastico, eccezionale, meraviglioso |
