10 slang words from the 2010s that used to be cool but aren’t anymore
In 2014, Kayla Newman, known online as Peaches Monroee, posted a short Vine video of her eyebrows, and a phrase came out of it: on fleek.
Within months, everyone from Ariana Grande to Sir Patrick Stewart was using it. Within a few years, it was on lists of slang people wanted left behind.
Ten words follow, each with a name or a date attached. Each one sounded normal in a school hallway or a group chat, and now they mostly sound like throwbacks.
Even Drake called YOLO an epidemic
Drake popularized it with his 2011 song “The Motto,” and by 2012 he was calling the phrase an “epidemic.” In 2013, The Lonely Island released a song called “YOLO” as a parody, and spoofed it on Saturday Night Live with Kendrick Lamar.
On fleek, from one Vine
When something is perfect or flawless, you say “it’s on fleek”; the phrase blew up after that single video, then became an ironic meme in its own right. BuzzFeed called it a great case study in internet slang’s rapid rise and fall.
Bae caught me slippin
That viral meme helped the word explode in 2012 and 2013, and advertisers soon adopted it. According to Dictionary.com, it means to be caught off guard and gained popularity through a viral tweet. Over time, constant use turned it from a sweet nickname into a mostly sarcastic joke.
Swag
Most people associate it with Justin Bieber, but it comes from hip-hop and African American Vernacular English. Merriam-Webster defines it as “an attitude of swaggering self-confidence,” short for swagger. Say it today, and you’ll likely get the opposite effect.
The dab died on January 12, 2017
BuzzFeed’s in-depth study, which it admits was a joke, says that’s the day Paul Ryan dabbed. The move, extending one arm and hiding your face in the crook of the other, apparently started in the Atlanta rap scene.
Yeet: from a Dallas Vine to Word of the Year
Meaning you are feeling filled with excitement, it bubbled up after a Vine starring a dancing teenager from Dallas, Lil Meatball. Yeet began as a dance in Black internet culture, and in 2018 the American Dialect Society voted it Slang/Informal Word of the Year.
Clapped back
Meaning: a witty response to an insult. One list of slang to retire calls it a phrase born of necessity, once a term of empowerment, and now hokey and outdated.
Basic: Ugg boots, pumpkin spice lattes, infinity scarves
Social media made it easy to call out trends that lacked individuality, a beginner’s guide to everyone’s favorite new insult at the time. Gen Z has since swapped in cheugy.
Lit used to mean something else entirely
In the 20th century, Merriam-Webster notes, it described being intoxicated. It evolved to mean anything exciting or memorable, and hip-hop artists like Travis Scott, along with the rise of social media, helped it blow up.
Slay’s ballroom roots
It began in drag and queer ballroom culture as a metaphor for being on point in both style and attitude. The 2010s turned it into a universal word for approval, and its heyday has passed.
The bottom line
Each started somewhere specific: a Drake track, a Vine, a ballroom, an Atlanta dance floor, and each stopped sounding cool once everyone else got there.
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