ASKfm translates teen talk with top 20 slang terms
ASKfm today (19 January) revealed the top 20 trending list of slang words and acronyms posted in the app, which houses 150 million members in more than 150 countries, to help parents better understand the ever-expanding and changing lingo of the youth demographic.
Andrea Cutright, COO of Askfm, talked of the ability for teen language to experience a seismic shift with just a few clicks, texts or posts.
She added: "Teens use our Q&A platform as a means to express themselves through dialogue so we have our finger on the pulse of how teens talk – be it in the form of acronyms, new definitions or the latest emoji."
"With this list, parents can now rest easy in the knowledge that being called GOAT is actually a very good thing and OOTD can explain why their teens take four dozen selfies.”
The top 20 terms in ASKfm’s Teen Slang Dictionary include:
1. PAP - acronym meaning “post a picture”
2. Bad - bad still means good but it has shifted slightly and means something even more positive like hot
3. Ship - short for relationship
4. :3 - a symbol meant to represent the cat face made by anime characters when they say something clever, sarcastic, or comment on something cute
5. IDEK - acronym for “I don’t even know…”
6. IKR - acronym meaning “I know, right?”
7. OOTD - acronym for “outfit of the day;” commonly used to prompt someone to post a picture of their current outfit or to share your current outfit with friends/followers
8. SMH - acronym for “shaking my head;” in reference to something distasteful
9. Dime - the highest rating on a scale of 1-10; used to share approval or express how good something is
10. THOT - acronym meaning “that ho over there;” used to describe females with a promiscuous reputation
11. Netflix and chill - code for hooking up or a “booty call”
12. Savage - used to describe something that is hardcore or extreme, in a good way
13. AF - acronym “as f***” used to express the severity of something (e.g. hot AF)
14. TBR - acronym for “to be rude;” usually said before the person shares their true – and harsh – feelings
15. Peep - can refer either to friends (your people), or to look at/listen to (e.g. peep this)
16. Slept - can refer to hitting someone hard enough to knock them out, missing out on something awesome, or to be extremely high
17. GOAT - acronym for “greatest of all time”
18. No chill - used to describe someone who is being irrational
19. Likers get rate - a phrase that implies the original poster will rank anyone that likes/comments/answers a post, typically around how cool they are perceived to be or how they look; also used to incent followers to like posts to get something (usually indicated in the post) in return
20. Frog emoji + coffee cup emoji - based off a popular meme of Kermit the Frog drinking a cup of tea, teens use this emoji combo to sarcastically imply “but that’s none of my business” or “I’m just saying”