However, Rapper Lil B changed it as a term for being yourself and not caring what others think of you-to carry yourself with swagger. Where’d it come from? According to the 2018 definition, based is from the 80s slang word basehead which was used to describe people addicted to freebasing cocaine.
While the true connotative definition of “based” is pretty ambiguous, a lot of people use it to describe something that is original or the “opposite of cringe.” Whether the word is positive or negative depends on the situation because it is often used ironically. What is it? At its most literal definition, based is an adjective describing someone who is addicted to crack cocaine, but that isn’t the meaning that is most often used on social media now. Worst Christmas songs ever? Here are some of the most hated on social mediaĪ lot of new slang words have emerged in the past few years, so here is a list of slang words that were popular in 2021 that you might not know. So if you have no idea what kids are saying or what’s being posted online, it’s probably intentional, and you’re not alone. Meanwhile, meanings shift, new words emerge and old words get reinvented in ways that are designed to be confusing for adults, outsiders and meddling authority figures. Time interviewed linguist and lexicographer Ben Zimmer to help explain why it’s hard to understand “what the kids are saying.” He explained, “Slang is notoriously difficult to track historically because slang is very often the kind of language that resists standard treatment.” Slang often gets spoken-or posted-before it gets written down, much less published and added to archives where it can be used professionally. But have you ever heard or seen a word or phrase and just thought, huh?Īccording to Britannica, slang is “unconventional words or phrases that express either something new or something old in a new way.” Slang is characterized by “its colourful metaphors” and “frequently impertinent social criticism” and is often “indecent or obscene.” ( WBOY) – Language is constantly changing, especially with social media allowing words to be adapted to fit new functions and formats.