"The One That Gets Me Is Raw Dogging": People Are Sharing The Everyday Words That Mean Verrrrry Different Things Now Than When They Were Young
Though we tend to think of words as having fixed and unchanging definitions, the way people use language is actually always evolving. Definitions can change due to social changes, new technology, current events, and so many other reasons.
For example, many of the so-called "TikTok slang" words beloved by Gen Z are actually taken from African American Vernacular English (AAVE). To many white ears, these word usages sound new and unusual, but they've existed for a long time.
I think it's genuinely fascinating to learn about how words have changed in the past (like, did you know that "nice" is descended from the Latin word for "ignorant"?), and it's pretty cool to pause and think about how we're witnessing language evolving right before our eyes. Recently, u/chicken_spanker asked older adults on Reddit to share the words that have changed definitions in their lifetimes, and they had so much to say. Here are some of the top comments:
1."In sports, a goat was a player that fouled up so erroneously that they effectively handed the game to the opponents. Now, it’s used as the acronym for 'Greatest Of All Time.'"
2."The one that gets me is 'raw dogging'. I had a 20-something tell me they raw dogged a flight and I was like, 'Excuse me, you did what on your flight?'"
3."When I was a teen back in the Pleistocene, if you were 'straight,' it meant you didn’t smoke, drink, etc. I didn’t get invited to some of the fun parties because my classmates thought I was too 'straight.' Now. it means 'not part of the LGBTQIA community.' I’m still straight, but the nice LGBTQ people invite me anyway because they’re cool like that."
4."The one I still have to mentally correct every time is 'thongs.' When I was a kid, that was the word for flip-flops. At 56, I still occasionally forget and refer to my shoes as such. It causes smirks if I say something along the lines of, 'There I was with just my thongs on, and it was really muddy.'"
5."'Hooking up' used to mean meeting up with someone, e.g., 'Gotta work late, so I can’t go to dinner, but I’ll hook up with you guys at the show.'"
6."It's been around for a long time, but I still can't get used to 'sick' as a positive thing."
7."'Blue-haired ladies' used to reference gray-haired women who put a rinse on their hair. These days, it's perceived as an indicator for a liberal viewpoint."
8."When I hear that Taylor Swift just dropped a song from her upcoming album, my first thought is, 'What was wrong with it?'"
9."As a Gen Xer, 'queer' was a super bad slur. I've never been able to hear it in any other context."
10."The pound sign is now called a hashtag. What do they use for pound?"
11."Changing 'cringe' from a verb to an adjective took a little getting used to."
12."Slaps. My kiddo says 'it slaps,' meaning 'it's great.'"
13."Preppy. For me, the original term refers to prep-school style, jocks or private school kids, The Preppy Handbook, etc. There are some girls in my building who are maybe 10 or 11, and they use it to mean pastel-colored. Every time my little dog wears her pastel pink or blue winter coats in the elevator, they go on and on about how preppy she is."
14."Fit check doesn't mean looking to see how well a particular item of clothing fits your body, but how the whole outfit looks."
15."To say that something 'sucks' was too vulgar to use casually — now 'sucks' is commonly used by virtually all media and so on, and the vulgarity has been de-fanged, so to speak."
16."Although a lot of people over the age of forty say this, 'smash' used to mean break something into pieces. Now it’s used for having sex or eating food."
17."The word that amazes me the most is 'cap.' Its journey of definitions is truly amazing. From a piece of headwear to striking someone in the face, to shooting someone, to lying to someone. Quite a journey for such a small word."
18."Crash out. It used to mean that one was exhausted or perhaps intoxicated and fell deeply asleep for a significant chunk of time. Now, it's more connotative of 'going postal,' creating wild havoc that will result in incarceration. The repurposing of raw-dogging also made me do a double-take worthy of Parker Lewis."
19."'Fuck with.' When I was growing up, to 'fuck with' someone was to pick on or harass them. 'I didn't mean anything. I was just fucking with him.' Very surprising to find the number of people that use fuck with to mean that's my friend. 'Jimmy? Oh yeah, I fuck with him.'"
20."My son uses 'drip' as a good thing, as in 'he is drip.' When I was young, you didn't want to be a drip because that meant boring and uncool (like a drip from a pipe, which is about as exciting as watching grass grow). But apparently, now that comes from ice, which comes from diamonds, so if you're drip, you have bling and rizz (charisma). But I think even drip might be fading out of use? I haven't heard him use it lately."
21."When I was growing up, the word hack meant just what it sounds like: to take a hatchet to something and hack it. It wasn't good. If it's a hack job, it's zero quality and zero effectiveness. Means something is butchered, done without any understanding, and incredibly cheap. To my surprise, life hacks today mean shortcuts, usually clever, about how to make life easier. It's a complete reversal of the meaning of the word."
22.And finally, "Eat me was a humorous retort, and now… Well, you know what it means."
Is there a word that's totally changed definitions in your lifetime? Tell us what it used to mean and what it means now in the comments!
