Welcome to the latest instalment of English in Progress, the newsletter that keeps you updated on the English language. Appears in your inbox when my lists are long enough.

My name is Heddwen Newton, I teach English at the University of Bielefeld. (The new job is the reason this newsletter disappeared for a bit. Sorry about that. I’ve found my groove, now!) I love discovering all the ways English is spoken, the ways in which it is used by different generations and by people from all over the world.

Gen Zalpha slang

Slang used by mostly Gen Z (born 1996 to 2010, more or less) and sometimes Gen Alpha (born 2010 to 2024). Click on the word to see where I got it from.

4+4 - very good. Derived from the fact that 4+4=eight, which sounds like ate, and for Gen Z “you ate that” means “you did very well on that task” (On Urban Dictionary since 2023)

altered my brain chemistry - had a significant impact on thoughts, emotional state or worldview, whether positively or negatively (On Urban Dictionary since 2022)

balletcore - a soft girl aesthetic where you take ballet staples and incorporate them into fashion such as ballet flats, tights, and lots of lace, pinks, and ruffles. (not (yet) on Urban Dictionary)

to crash out - to lose control and freak out (On Urban Dictionary since 2019)

drip - used to compliment an entire outfit. It references clothes, accessories, and confidence. “That drip is on point!” (On Urban Dictionary since 2018)

dumpy - a big, firm set of buttocks. Probably from the word “dump truck” (On Urban Dictionary with this definition since 2020)

fax, no printer - I am telling the truth. A play on words, as the word fax sounds like facts. (On Urban Dictionary since 2018)

griddy - a victory dance performed by athletes and gamers (On Urban Dictionary since 2022) (YouTube clip here)

sexy water - water mixed with “fun and functional ingredients” like electrolyte powders and mineral tinctures (not (yet) on Urban Dictionary)

weird - this will make you feel less old; apparently American 13-year-olds are saying “sus” is out for when something is odd or suspicious, and instead they say, wait for it… “that’s weird”.

to yap - though similar in meaning to the classic sense, for Gen Z, yapping has lost its negative connotation. It is the ability to talk about anything and something to be proud of. To me, as a Brit, it feels close to the word “banter” (not (yet) on Urban Dictionary in this positive sense)

English progress

Gen Z is taking over incel slang, such as cucked and pilled. However, according to linguist Adam Aleksic, this is not problematic but rather an example of natural language development./ Washington Post (video)

Early language-evolution theories state that language becomes increasingly complex over time. But a new study supports a more recent theory that language, including English, ultimately gets more efficient and easier to understand./ Scientific American

In America, the ending of your name says a lot about when you were born. Take “-son”. In the 1970s, many babies were named Jason. Then names started giving way to sounds. Jason begot Mason, Jackson, Grayson, Carson and a whole family of other “-son” names that together make up a major 21st-century trend for baby boys./ The Washinton Post (archived version; lacks the pretty graphs)

Neologisms

My admittedly subjective criterion for words to make this list is that they seemed new and interesting to me. Click on the word for my source. Big thanks to the Words of the Week segment at the end of the podcast Because Language, and the Cambridge New Words Blog.

anthrobot - a very small robot made out of human cells

applejuicification - the use of apple juice as the main ingredient in drinks, especially when this is not made clear

dinkwap - double income, no kids, with a pet (also: dinkwad, with a dog, and dinkwac, with a cat)

disenshittification - reversing or preventing the degradation of online platforms and services; reversing enshittification

fundy baby voice - a vocal style adopted by some women in fundamentalist Christian communities characterised by a high-pitched, childlike tone

grift drift - a phenomenon where public figures gradually move towards more extreme, conspiratorial, or grifting behaviours over time, in order to maintain attention and engagement from their audience

hostile architecture - designing public spaces to deter unwanted behaviour, e.g. benches designed to stop homeless people sleeping on them

hurkle-durkle wellness - relaxing or lounging around, rather than being productive

linear TV - TV that airs at a specific time, as opposed to on-demand streaming services, in other words, traditional broadcast TV

plogging - combining jogging with picking up litter

reverse centaur - a type of automation where an AI system is in charge (the head), telling the human (the body) what to do, such as an Amazon warehouse worker. The term has been chosen to show that this is not how it should be.

sharenting - parenting while sharing your children’s pictures, behaviour, and milestones online.

sleep divorce - when couples decide to start sleeping in separate bedrooms, often leading to their relationship improving

English and society

Teen anxiety only seems to be surging in English-speaking countries. Perhaps not only smartphones/ social media are to blame for the anxiety epidemic, but also the cultural-specific content teens see on them. Perhaps people who keep hearing about new mental-health terminology start processing normal levels of anxiety as perilous signs of their own pathology. More anxiety diagnoses lead to more hypervigilance among young people about their anxiety, which leads to more withdrawal from everyday activities, which creates actual anxiety and depression, which leads to more diagnoses, and so on. / The Atlantic (USA, archived)

The vocabulary of children is shrinking because they are abandoning books for screens / The Telegraph (UK) And some Gen Zers who depend on technology to communicate and interact with others have seen a decline in their social and verbal skills / Forbes (USA)

A nice map of English proficiency around the world based on the EF Index / Forbes (USA)

ChatGPT is more likely to sentence people who speak African American English to death, researchers say / Gizmodo (USA)

Words around the world

In this section, I highlight some words and terms from the richness of the English-speaking world that came to my attention in the past weeks. Click on the word to get more information.

biscuit - ice hockey English for ‘puck’

extra - American English for ‘dramatic, attention-grabbing’

flog - Australian English for ‘idiot’

genny lec - British English slang for the UK general election on 4 July 2024

gimp - Canadian English for an injury-prone person or a person who feigns injury to get out of doing something

to give something a lash - Irish English for ‘to give something a try’

glory box - (old) Australian English for a box of linens and clothes, collected by a young woman for use after she is married. Chosen intentionally by British Portishead singer Beth Gibbons as the title of her most famous song, though where she came across the term is unclear.

to pass out - Indian English for ‘to graduate’

shiok - Singapore English for ‘good’ or ‘refreshing’

English around the world

American hockey players actively try to sound like hockey players and, in so doing, end up sounding like... Canadians./ Phys.org (Isle of Man)

Singlish's prominence these days seems a far cry from the times when the Singapore government had called for the eradication of Singlish in favour of standard English in the 90s and early 00s. Now, even Taylor Swift is using it. How did we get here?/ Yahoo (Singapore)

The word ‘selfie’ was coined by Australians / Radio New Zealand (New Zealand)

There is something to be said for spelling and saying ‘aluminum’. There is also something to be said for spelling and saying ‘aluminium’ / Linwistics (New Zealand)

Two decades after the last one was published, work is finally underway on a new Canadian dictionary. / Quill & Quire (Canada)

And finally…

And finally, a funny video or stupid joke that I found on social media.

User timjoestan shared a page from their high-schooler’s yearbook on Reddit.

The number of mistakes in this newsletter is directly proportionate to the number of times my three-year-old woke me up last night. If you want to give me any feedback (always much appreciated!), you can use the comment button below, or hit reply.

I used very limited AI to create this newsletter, just to help me find the right phrasing once or twice. All articles were chosen, read and summarised by a human being, namely me :-)

The comics are made using out-of-copyright book illustrations that I find on Flickr. Special thanks to my nephew Q who keeps me updated on Gen Z slang.