Slang Gen Z Quotes

Heading out on my baecation <3 See you all in 2 weeks!

He’s suspect. He says he’s not gay, but all his likes are of shirtless men.

He’s so woke that he’s protesting for LGBTQ+ rights in front of the Capitol.

My rule of thumb for online slang is that if a word doesn’t come from 4chan, it’s probably from AAE, and it’s shocking how frequently that holds true. Starting with Vine, the words “bae,” “fleek,” and “fam” all went from specific AAE origins to being called “Gen Z slang” or “internet slang.” On modern platforms, this has only accelerated. Whenever we accuse someone of “speaking like TikTok,” we’re usually talking about specific grammatical constructions like “not you,” “it’s giving,” and “the way you X”—all of which trace back to African American English, and all of which were adopted because they felt “cool.” The same is true for a wide range of up-and-coming vocabulary words, including “cap,” “sis,” “bruh,” and “bussin.