25 Comments
Jun 12Liked by Liz Gumbinner

You'll have to pry "yeet" from my cold dead hands because I crack up every time I hear/say it. 😂 Otherwise, thanks for this. I'm glad I'm no longer a parent of teens.

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I LOVE being a parent of teens! Where else would I get all my good horror movie recos?

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Jun 12Liked by Liz Gumbinner

Teens are fun, but when they hit their mid 20s... then they give you the best brunch places, new music you actually both like, and great cocktail spots. Bonus points if they still want to go with you. 🙂

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I look forward to another phase to enjoy! (But no rush.)

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That’s one way to find good movie recommendations! Enjoy watching with your teens!

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Jun 12Liked by Liz Gumbinner

seeing as yeet is the best word, I shan't be stopping it's usage

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But is it better than "shan't?" That is the question.

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Jun 12Liked by Liz Gumbinner

Noooooooo. But as a millennial, I also use tomfoolery and shenanigans. Yeet is in my top 10 though, lol!!

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Shenanigans is my FAVORITE. I used to work with this awesome woman who, whenever she suspected someone was up to no good would simply look me in the eye and say SHENANIGANS. I have stolen it ever since.

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Jun 12Liked by Liz Gumbinner

Lately my 14yo son responds to every text, "Sigma" (sometimes he misspells it as "Signa"). I've been assuming from context that it means something like, "yes, cool, I gotchu" but I'd appreciate you querying your teen focus group!!

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Jun 12Liked by Liz Gumbinner

btw I *have* googled it and I don't think he's using it to mean "sigma male"... 🤮

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Jun 12·edited Jun 12Author

You're right...it does mean sigma male, which is why I left it out of the list intentionally; but it's become kind of an ironic nonsensical exclamation: "What the Sigma!" is interchangeable with "What the skibidi toilet!"

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my grand children are about to enter teen-dom, so I'll happily pass this along to their mother!

I too am a nitpicker about some things - and the one I've heard too often lately, is the use of 'plead' in the past tense; newsreaders on TV and radio say, "He pleaded guilty" ... when the correct word is 'pled' - please Liz, spread the word that pled is what they should be saying.

As always, I love your writing content and style - it always make me smile.

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Thank you Mark! And now I hesitate to tell you: Merriam-Webster lists both pled and pleaded as acceptable. The AP Stylebook and The Chicago Manual of Style both prefer pleaded. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/pleaded-pled/

Now you can do as you please. Or as you plead.

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Jun 12Liked by Liz Gumbinner

Kids and you slayed…. Is that the correct word?

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They slayed! I just edited. (That’s a cross-generational word meaning “edited.”)

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Jun 12Liked by Liz Gumbinner

Such a great reference. I knew most of these... Amelia's vocabulary consists primarily of Slay, No Cap, and Bruh.

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I had to tell my kid to stop calling me bruh year ago 🙃

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Jun 12·edited Jun 12Liked by Liz Gumbinner

Despite having two teens, I did not know most of these terms (maybe because they're monosyllabic boys?) so I thank you and your teens for the education! I'm confident I'll master the new vocab just in time for it to become obsolete.

PS: A different teen told me that "no one says 'cringe' anymore."

So, cringe got yeeted? ;)

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😂💯

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Jun 13Liked by Liz Gumbinner

Haha I tested my fiancé with the vocabulary from your article over dinner!! (We’re almost 30.) We were both surprised to realize that we knew most of the words & it was fun to discuss some of the nuances of the meanings

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Best dinner conversation topic, right?

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I love this so hard. (I'm making up my own nouveau Gen X slang here I think?) One of my teens uses tons of these, and I take a perverse joy in using them in my comments on her Instagram posts. Also: I'm embarrased to say that I've started actually, unironically using "lowkey."

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Same. So that means they will have something else shortly for us to steal.

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Loved this. My wife is a middle-school librarian, so she has a much better grip on current kid slang than I do, even with two teens in the house. I only knew 25% or so--expected to know more. If I ever ask my son to explain any word to me, he just looks at me pityingly and says, "It's too hard to explain" (read: to YOU).

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