Heddwen Newton - neologisms & slang
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heddwen.bsky.social
Heddwen Newton - neologisms & slang
@heddwen.bsky.social
2.8K followers 1.3K following 440 posts
I write the monthly (ish) newsletter English in Progress. Slang, neologisms, fresh articles on language https://englishinprogress.substack.com/

English teacher at Bielefeld University (EAL & ELA)

Dutch English
World Englishes
AI English
Lexicography
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heddwen.bsky.social
In her latest newsletter, Daisy Christodoulou makes the point that educational apps can never compete with apps that have "hold the user's attention" as their sole purpose.

The following excerpt made me LOL
Source: No More Marking newsletter There are serious academics who are proposing that one of the reasons people are having less sex is because the online world is so compelling and addictive. If online content is so addictive that it can lead to adults having less sex, it’s probably fair to speculate that it will lead to kids studying less algebra.
October 5, 2025 at 9:25 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
I did a pilot study for longitudinal slang research in February (128 respondents). Got discouraged because of methodological issues (too much slang!). Have now had an idea how to address these issues. Feeling encouraged again!

Also: having ChatGPT help you with R is FIRE.
Horizontal bar graph with the title "Which of the following slang terms have you heard used a lot in the past two months?" (The question was specified to be about young people; so people over the age of 25 were asked to answer according to what they heard from their children/ students etc) The answers show that "Low key" and "Bruh/Bro" were most popular in January & February 2025, with around 73% of respondents saying they had heard these a lot. Rizz, Cringe, Slay, Brainrot, Sigma, Yapping and Skibidi were also popular. Heard very rarely were Cheugy, Fugazy and Basic. Here are all the percentages, courtesy of R: "Low key-74.2%, Bruh / Bro-73.4%, Rizz-68.8%, Cringe-66.4%, Slay-63.3%, Brainrot-60.2%, Sigma-57.8%, Yapping-56.2%, Skibidi-55.5%, GOAT-52.3%, Real-47.7%, Chat-46.9%, Aura-45.3%, Fire-45.3%, I love that for you-44.5%, Sus-44.5%, W-43.8%, Ate-43%, Era-43%, No cap-43%, Cap-42.2%, Mood-42.2%, Main character energy-40.6%, Gyat-39.8%, Baddie-37.5%, Simp-37.5%, Type shit-37.5%, High key-36.7%, Lit-36.7%, Mewing-35.9%, On God-33.6%, Say less-33.6%, Finna-30.5%, Fit (adj)-30.5%, Demure-29.7%, Drip-28.9%, Bussin-27.3%, It altered my brain chemistry-25%, Bop-23.4%, Fit-23.4%, Ahh-22.7%, Ohio-16.4%, Fanum tax-15.6%, Huzz-14.1%, Baka-13.3%, Based-11.7%, Poggers-10.2%, Cheugy-4.7%, Fugazy-1.6%, Basic-0.8%"
October 1, 2025 at 2:11 PM
heddwen.bsky.social
From around late July 2025, Urban Dictionary no longer shows an upvote/downvote count. Nobody knows why. It might just be a bug, or it may have been intentional.

The missing counts make the site unusable for slang researchers like me :-(
Screenshot from Urban Dictionary definition for "Urban Dictionary Likes and Dislikes" They removed it because this website is now run by idiotic cunts apparently User1: Why can't I see the Urban Dictionary Likes and Dislikes? User2: Yeah what's up with the website, is it a bug? User3: No, this website has just gone to shit User1 and User2: Aw fuck that sucks, now it's unusable by KeepTheDamnSocksOn September 20, 2025 Link: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Urban%20Dictionary%20Likes%20and%20Dislikes
September 28, 2025 at 2:29 PM
heddwen.bsky.social
Another nail in the coffin of internet blogging...

Spam comments have existed for many years, and so have spam filters.

But now spammers are using AI to read the blog post and write relevant comments, and my spam filter lets them through, meaning I have to sift through them manually.
Three comments in one column. They are all commenting on this article: https://englishinprogress.net/gen-z-slang/vro-instead-of-bro/ This was really informative! I didnt know the origins of vro, and its interesting to see how it went from a possible XXXTentacion acronym to a meme. The Spanish connection was a fun thought, though ultimately incorrect. Great breakdown! This article is really fascinating! It dives deep into the origins of vro, exploring its connections to XXXTentacion, urban slang, and even a meme. I appreciate how the author examines various theories and provides context. Its cool to see how language evolves. This was a really interesting read! I never knew the origins of vro, and its fascinating to see how it evolved from XXXTentacions music to a popular meme. The explanations and historical context made it engaging.
September 23, 2025 at 10:01 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
XKCD from 20 Sep 25.

Is this a thing? I've never heard it, or heard anyone talk about it.
XKCD from 20/09/25 https://xkcd.com/3143/ Two stick figures walking. One says: That movie was so good, maybe even the greatest movie of all time question mark? The other one says: Yeah comma, but you said that about italics Charlie's Angels colon: full throttle period. Paragraph break. I question your judgement period. Subscript: When people say "question mark" out loud as a rhetorical device, it always makes me want to say my other punctuation and formatting too.
September 21, 2025 at 8:20 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
In the 60s, 'fantastic' used to be predominantly used in the sense of 'unbelievable; based on fantasy; not real'.

'The Fantastic 4' does not mean 'The Amazing 4', but more something like 'The Bizarre 4' or 'The Sci-Fi 4'.

(And Mister Fantastic is not full of himself!)
Panel from 1950s/ 1960s The Fantastic 4 comic. The Thing is saying "I ain't Ben anymore -- I'm what Susan called me -- The Thing!" And Mister Fantastic is saying "And I'll call myself... Mister Fantastic!!"
July 23, 2025 at 5:32 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
I was making Venn diagrams for work, so I went ahead and made one for this situation, too.
Venn diagram that has circle "correct according to pedants" overlap with "linguistic joke" and "correct according to a general audience". The overlap between all three states "haha, funny". The overlap between "correct according to pedants" and "linguistic joke" states "I don't get it".
May 5, 2025 at 2:03 PM
heddwen.bsky.social
Can we just pause for a moment an appreciate what great LingComm Gretchen is showcasing here? Correcting a misconception elegantly, respectfully and with humour.

#Lingcomm #linguistics @gretchenmcc.bsky.social
Gretchen McCulloch ‪@gretchenmcc.bsky.social‬ Regrettably, the kid would still probably just end up having the accent of the local community, since that's already what happens with kids of immigrants Now, if a whole TOWN decided to talk like a pirate for 10-20 years, the kids could have some fabulous accents The Tweet she is responding to: Pookleblinky ‪@pookleblinky.bsky.social‬ A fun thing to do as a parent would be to only speak to your kid using a bad accent/impersonation, for like the first 5 years, just to see what happens. What does your kid sound like if you've only spoken to them via a Christopher Walken impersonation, etc
April 15, 2025 at 10:04 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
The Goomba fallacy

the mistaken belief that when two contradictory opinions appear on the same internet forum, it reflects badly on the entire community.

Named for the below meme.

(More info: englishinprogress.net/uncategorize...)
Random figures from the Super Mario franchise. One is saying: 'I have opinion A that contradicts opinion B'. Another is saying 'I have opinion B that contradicts opinion A.' They are both speaking into the same Twitter funnel. A Goomba (little brown mushroom from Super Mario that looks slightly stupid and evil) is looking at twitter, and concluding that the way Twitter 'thinks' is 'I believe in opinion A and B, I'm a stupid walking contradiction'. The Goomba then thinks 'Everyone on this website is stupid except for me'.
April 7, 2025 at 8:46 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
Not dead in Dutch (and possibly also other European languages, I'm not sure). Many Dutch people don't know this, and I'm sure big numbers in English reports and such get misunderstood many times without anybody realising.
table that makes clear that a 1 with 9 zeroes is billion in English but miljard (pronounce: milliard) in Dutch, and a 1 with 12 zeroes is trillion in English but biljoen (pronounce: billioon) in Dutch. Triljoen in Dutch is a 1 with 18 zeroes. It's a big mess.
April 5, 2025 at 9:54 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
Neologism: 'tariffied'

afraid of the consequences of excessive tariffs

(Part of the ADS word of the year 2024 vote, which I would say was prescient)
Reddit Screenshot Posted "5 months ago" (I just screencapped this, so that puts it in December 2024) Title: They'll be tariffied soon enough Followed by a Twitter screenshot which reads "So it begins. MAGA is about to find out how tariffs actually work first hand." Followd by a screenshot of perhaps Reddit which reads "Results have already started. This is from an American woman today: My husband works for a small manufacturing company, and here in southwestern PA, that means most employees are Trump voters. When the president of the company sat them down today to tell them their annual Christmas bonus would not come this year because they now need to purchase at least a year's worth of products prior to January 21st due to the proposed tariffs, they did not understand. My husband said that their president had to explain what a tariff is and how it will directly hurt their company. They all thought the foreign company paid the tariff. This is the level of ignorance voting against their own interests here in PA, where we failed American women and children last night."
April 3, 2025 at 9:39 PM
heddwen.bsky.social
A screenshot of a post on maybe Twitter or Bluesky, no date or handle, author is "Amy L. Blair" Me: [uses "yeet" in a sentence] 14: "mom. No one says yeet." Me: "Yeet is cringe?" 14: (all caps) "Mom, no one says cringe" Me: "cringe has been yeeted?"
March 29, 2025 at 9:15 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
New slang of the day: cope (noun)

"A coping mechanism or self-delusion one clings to in order to endure a hopeless situation."

Originally incel and/or gamer slang, from the verb "to cope", but used quite differently, as can be seen below. People have also started verbing the noun (last example).
Titles of Reddit posts, all from within the past year "We are about to see never-before-seen levels of cope from the general public about AI" "The mass cope and seethe happening right now should be studied" "We are at the people making shit up stage. Pure cope" "Seeing a lot of cope that this was already possible with 2.0 flash but how is this not wildly better than anything else?" "The cope is already beginning" "Can't believe people are still coping about this"
March 26, 2025 at 5:43 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
From Reddit, the etymology of "vlogger".
The etymology of vlogger - a bit flowchart full of text, too much too transcribe (sorry!), but the gist is that vlogger comes from video blog, blog comes from weblog, web comes from wordwide web and log comes from logbook, and all the separate parts of all these words have their own etymology going all the way back to Proto Indo European.
March 11, 2025 at 6:51 PM
heddwen.bsky.social
"Hey grandma, these waffles are amazing, I'm not going to lie, I secretly like them better than mom's, she is a larp (= person who pretends to be something they are not) when it comes to cooking anyway."

This usage of "larp" was new to me; my translation is a guess. Anybody have a better idea?
Ayo grandma these waffles is bussin and poggers, ngl I lowkey like it better than moms she a larp when it comes to cooking anyway.
January 26, 2025 at 11:09 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
Neologism of the day:

'Kenopsia' - The haunting quality of seeing a location typically full of people in a state of emptiness or abandonment.

From ancient Greek kenós, 'empty', and -opsia, 'sight'.

Coined by author John Koenig for his 'Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows' project in 2012.
An old, abandoned, tiled space with what look to be many concrete sinks; perhaps the washroom of a prison, orphanage, or boarding school. Difficult to recognise now, as the taps and mirrors have been removed. Graffiti on the walls and dirt on the floor.
January 23, 2025 at 8:42 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
neologism of the day: (not super new, but still)

'wankpanzer' - a pointlessly large and overpowered 4×4 vehicle, in particular a Tesla Cybertruck

'panzer' from the German word for tank
'wank' from being a wanker
picture of a Tesla cybertruck
January 22, 2025 at 9:00 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
Ouch.
(Comment from 10 months ago on an article in the Washington Post) I have a friend who was out at a club, and a young person came up to him and said, "wow, you have a clock on your wrist." He was wearing a watch.
January 17, 2025 at 1:20 PM
heddwen.bsky.social
Making up a new word to complain about other people making up new words. Love it.

(Let it be known I quite like "Crimbo" and "holibobs". I think they're fun. At the same time, I can also appreciate the feelings that led to this comic being created. I contain multitudes.)
Cartoon. Title: Vomcab - made up disgusting words like "Crimbo" and "holibobs""chillax" etc Man asks woman: "Any plans for Crimbo?" Woman replies: "I'll be chillaxing in my jim jams for holibobs probs watching crimbo strictly." Man in middle is making vomiting noises and matching expression. All three are wearing matching jumpers.
December 12, 2024 at 7:59 PM
heddwen.bsky.social
Ryan Starkey makes wonderful, well-researched maps about dialects and accents in Great Britain.

But sometimes he gets silly.
Map of Britain titled "Who brings Christmas presents in different British regions?" A few names: Northern Scotland has "Nessie", southern Scotland has "Old Man Puddin'", the North East has "big Johny Winter", Cumbria has "Tabitha the Christmas Hedgehog", Yorkshire has "Odin", West Midlands has "Replacement Bus Service", Cambridgeshire has "Professor X-mas", Wales has "Cymrawd nadolig barfog", Kent and East Sussex have "amazon.co.uk" and the rest of southern England has "father Christmas"
December 5, 2024 at 11:52 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
Neologism for 2024:

Apparently, "Sandwich Generation" (for people taking care of children and parents) was already a thing. Now we also have "club sandwich generation"; for sandwichers who have an additional generation (grandparents, or grandchildren) to take care of.

Glad I'm not one of them!
Definition from the Cambridge New Words blog: club sandwich generation, noun [S] [pronunciation guide] a way of referring to the group of people who have parents, children and also grandparents or grandchildren to take care of
December 2, 2024 at 1:01 PM
heddwen.bsky.social
Cultural difference perceived as language problem.

American goes to restaurant in the UK, only gets one pancake. Believes this to be a grammatical error.

What tickled me most is that many Americans in the comments agree.

@grammargirl.bsky.social, @lynneguist.bsky.social
Facebook post in group "The Grammar Police", dated 22 November 2024. Title: "I only got one pancake. After asking there the other one(s) were, I was told that it means there are different pancakes available. But who has one pancake?" Picture is of a restaurant menu sign which reads "Pancakes; £4.95 ; Homemade to order with fresh free range eggs from local farm ; - lemon and sugar ; - nutella ; - Canadian original maple syrup ; - toffee sauce ; - bubble gum sauce; Add a scoop of Sussex ice cream for only £2.20"
November 25, 2024 at 10:54 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
This 6-year-old map from Reddit is doing the rounds again. How hard accents are to understand from the perspective of a Londoner.

(Comments on Reddit note that the creator has probably never encountered US Cajun or Southern Appalachian, as these are just about as unintelligible as Glaswegian.)
Coloured map of Britain and Ireland, plus small maps of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa,the United States and Canada, titled "How well I understand regional English accents (from the perspective of u/bezzleford). The notable take-away from the maps is that the person in question can understand Australian, American etc accents just fine. The accents they have trouble with are closer to home: Irish English (especially north-west and south-west) and northern Scotland give them trouble, and Glasgow is marked as a little island of unintelligibility.
November 18, 2024 at 8:36 AM
heddwen.bsky.social
Can't believe this one hadn't crossed my radar yet!
Picture of text in style of dictionary. Text reads: "X-odus (noun) A large-scale departure of users from the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to alternative platforms, particularly observed in late 2024."
November 15, 2024 at 12:07 PM
heddwen.bsky.social
Serious question: why is this funny to people who don't speak Dutch? Is it the sound of it?

(I do speak Dutch, so for me the only "funny" thing is that the sexual connotation is gone in the Dutch translation, making it a bad translation.)
Image of a machine translation captioned with "dutch is not a serious language". The machine translation reads "English: spank me daddy", "Dutch: geef me een klap papa"
November 13, 2024 at 11:49 AM