The words are faint, the printing mechanism old. But I’m pretty sure the words typed on the paper above are new. “Rizz. AURA. SIX SEVEN.”
Baddie Underwood slaps, no cap. Girly pops back in the day be cracked on this clanker. Bruh! Sigma. High key dub iffin shawty be bussin this delulu gizmoid 115 words a minute. Gyatt! Chat, how’d ya do? Six seven? No worries, soon you’ll slay iffin you lock in and glow up. Touchin grass. AFK.
Whooosh. Say what? Yup, that’s just some of the words entering Gen Z’s vocabulary recently. They’ve done gone goblin mode. Perhaps not surprising when the best of Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y are debating the meaning of “woman” in the Supreme Court and commentators discuss it on the news. See the end of this story for more generational slang.
Fedrico Fellini, a keen observer of life and fantasy, said: “A different language is a different vision of life.” More probative is Ludwig Wittgenstein’s: “If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.” The purpose of slang is to bond, establishing a group’s identity and shared values. It can be creativity based, developed for a group to thrive outside norms challenging the status quo. Or it can simply be a cultural subset’s touchstone. To some extent, each generation of youngsters in modern culture builds an identity through slang. In our fast-paced world, Zoomers are flexing.
Fun facts: Boomers (born between 1946–1964); Gen X (1965–1980); Gen Y, a.k.a. Millennials (1981–1996); Gen Z, also known as Zoomers and first digital natives (1997–2012); Gen A, Alpha (2013–2024); Gen B, Beta (2025–2039).
Underwood is considered the first and best modern typewriter. Headquartered in New York, the machines were manufactured in Hartford, Connecticut. By 1920, Underwood produced over 1,400 typewriters per day. Both Underwood and Royal typewriters were produced in Hartford, making Hartford the “Typewriter Capital of the World.”
Fedrico Fellini (1920-1993) is recognized as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century. Nominated for 17 Academy Awards, in 2002 he was voted second best all-time director in a directors’ poll, and 17th best in a critics’ poll conducted by Sight and Sound magazine. Famous films include: I Vitalloni, La Strada, La Dolce Vita, Fellini Satyricon, 8 ½ Weeks and Amarcord.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), an influential 20th-century philosopher, focused on the role of language, logic, perception and intention. He proposed meaning arises from use in social contexts—bringing flexibility to a rigid topic. From an immensely wealthy Austrian family, he gave away his inheritance to siblings and lived an ascetic life in a Norwegian hut while solving central problems in modern philosophy. Bertrand Russell called him “the most perfect example of genius.” Wittgenstein’s last words: “Tell them I’ve had a fabulous life.” He was variously a hospital porter, a gardener, a rural primary school teacher, an aeronautical engineer and a professor of philosophy at Cambridge from 1939-1947.
Translation of first paragraph and other assorted Gen Z words: Rizz – charisma; Aura – vibe/personal energy; Six Seven – could go either way, often accompanied by palms-up balancing action; Baddie – good looking; Slaps – really good; No Cap – not a lie; Girly Pop – feminine friend; Cracked – insanely skilled; Clanker – rickety old, as in iPhone 12; Bruh – shock exclamation; Sigma – top tier without the testosterone of Alpha; High Key – very, Low Key – slightly; Dub – win; Shawty – girlfriend; Bussin – exceptionally good; Delulu – delusional; Gizmoid – gadget robot droid combo; Gyatt – exclamation for massively impressive; Chat – audience intro, substitution for ladies and gentlemen, friends, guys, dudes, derived from live streamers querying audience in chat function; Slay – well done; Lockin In – hyper focus; Glow Up – positive transformation; Touchin Grass – log off and return to reality; AFK – away from keyboard.
Other Z terms: Stan – fan boy or girl; Twin – BFF squared; Bet – agreed; Ate – extremely well done; NPC – nonplayer character from gaming, a.k.a. boring, tedious person; Flexing – showing off skill or strength; Goblin Mode – unapologetically self-indulgent, trending during the pandemic and awarded Oxford Dictionary’s “Word of the Year” for 2022.
