Internet Slang

Internet culture / language traditionactive

Also known as: Netspeak · cyber-slang · chatspeak · SMS speak · digispeak · IM language

Internet slang is the evolving lexicon of abbreviations, acronyms, and intentional misspellings born from 1990s chat rooms and message boards, spanning generations from LOL and leetspeak to rizz and no cap.

Internet slang is the sprawling collection of abbreviations, acronyms, intentional misspellings, and informal expressions that people developed to communicate online. Born out of necessity in early chat rooms and message boards, terms like LOL, BRB, and AFK became the building blocks of a new digital language6. From leetspeak and LOLcat grammar to rizz and no cap, internet slang reinvents itself with each new platform and generation13.

TL;DR

Internet slang is the sprawling collection of abbreviations, acronyms, intentional misspellings, and informal expressions that people developed to communicate online.

Overview

Internet slang covers a wide range of non-standard language forms that people developed for online communication. The practice goes by many names, including netspeak, chatspeak, SMS speak, and digispeak5. It includes acronyms (LOL, BRB, FOMO), intentional misspellings (pwned, teh), phonetic contractions (gonna, cus), hashtag conventions, and entire sub-dialects like leetspeak6. The primary drives behind internet slang are efficiency and identity. Early users needed shortcuts for slow connections and character-limited platforms, while later generations adopted slang to signal belonging in online communities6.

What makes internet slang different from ordinary slang is its speed. A phrase can go global on TikTok in days and feel outdated within weeks. Linguist Adam Aleksic noted that "for a word to really work, it needs to be unobtrusive" and must "fill a lexical gap"13. David Crystal, a pioneer in Internet linguistics, argued that online conversation more closely resembles face-to-face speech than formal writing, with slang functioning as the primary way users show they're "one of the gang"4.

The roots of internet slang stretch back to the late 1970s, when users of early communications networks like Usenet began developing their own shorthand8. These first abbreviations were practical. On text-based systems where connections were slow and every keystroke cost time, compressing "laughing out loud" to LOL or "be right back" to BRB made real sense6. LOL itself appeared in online bulletin board systems as early as 1989, predating the mainstream web by years14.

Some abbreviations go back much further than the internet. "OMG" was used by Admiral John Fisher in a 1917 letter to Winston Churchill, and telegraph operators in the 19th century used similar shorthand when chatting between official messages9. The impulse to compress language for electronic media is well over a century old.

As chat rooms and IRC gained popularity through the 1990s, internet slang moved beyond simple shortcuts. Gamers produced "pwned" from a typing error and "noob" from "newbie"6. Subcultures on message boards each developed what linguists would recognize as distinct online dialects4. Language was becoming a playground where misspelling was not ignorance but style.

Origin & Background

Platform
Usenet, BBS, IRC
Creator
Community-created
Date
Late 1970s

The roots of internet slang stretch back to the late 1970s, when users of early communications networks like Usenet began developing their own shorthand. These first abbreviations were practical. On text-based systems where connections were slow and every keystroke cost time, compressing "laughing out loud" to LOL or "be right back" to BRB made real sense. LOL itself appeared in online bulletin board systems as early as 1989, predating the mainstream web by years.

Some abbreviations go back much further than the internet. "OMG" was used by Admiral John Fisher in a 1917 letter to Winston Churchill, and telegraph operators in the 19th century used similar shorthand when chatting between official messages. The impulse to compress language for electronic media is well over a century old.

As chat rooms and IRC gained popularity through the 1990s, internet slang moved beyond simple shortcuts. Gamers produced "pwned" from a typing error and "noob" from "newbie". Subcultures on message boards each developed what linguists would recognize as distinct online dialects. Language was becoming a playground where misspelling was not ignorance but style.

How It Spread

The late 1990s and early 2000s brought instant messaging into millions of homes. AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger created real-time text conversations that demanded rapid responses. Shorthand exploded: TTYL (talk to you later), IDK (I don't know), and ILY (I love you) joined the standard vocabulary of a generation typing on desktop computers.

Mobile phones pushed SMS language into the mix. Character limits on text messages and the multi-tap keyboards of pre-smartphone handsets made abbreviation almost mandatory. "Tmr" replaced "tomorrow," "l8r" replaced "later," and numbers substituted for syllables wherever possible.

Social media platforms accelerated the cycle starting around 2005. Twitter's 140-character cap put a premium on compression and turned hashtags into a new form of commentary. Tumblr specialized in exaggerated emotional expression, with keysmash sequences like "asdfghjkl" and ALL CAPS standing in for tone of voice. Reddit and 4chan developed their own distinct vocabularies, each platform functioning as its own dialect zone.

The smartphone era of the 2010s layered emojis, autocorrect, and visual elements onto text-based slang. Vine's six-second videos gave birth to catchphrases that spread faster than any typed abbreviation. Then TikTok supercharged the entire process, cycling through slang at a pace that left linguists scrambling to keep up.

How to Use This Meme

Internet slang doesn't follow a single template like most memes. Instead, it operates through several common patterns:

Acronyms and initialisms compress phrases into letter sequences. LOL (laughing out loud), BRB (be right back), FOMO (fear of missing out), and TL;DR (too long; didn't read) are among the most widely recognized examples. Users typically deploy these in casual text conversations, social media comments, and online chats.

Intentional misspelling and phonetic spelling add tone or signal insider status. "Teh" instead of "the," "pwned" instead of "owned," and "srsly" instead of "seriously" all started as errors or shortcuts that became deliberate style choices.

Hashtag conventions turn phrases into tags serving double duty as commentary and categorization. Writing "#blessed" after a humblebrag or "#IYKYK" (if you know, you know) works as both label and wink.

Generational slang includes terms that cycle rapidly through communities. Words like "rizz" (charisma), "no cap" (no lie), "bussin" (extremely good), and "slay" shift in connotation depending on who uses them and when.

The general rule of thumb: match the slang to the audience. What works in a Discord server can misfire badly in a work email.

Cultural Impact

The 2013 Oxford Dictionaries update sparked a public debate about language and the internet. HuffPost acknowledged that "it may seem like the Internet is ruining our ability to communicate" but pointed to new concepts like "Internet of things" and "space tourism" as evidence that the web's influence on language was not all abbreviation and misspelling. Linguists like Crystal argued that online conversation actually expanded what language can do rather than degrading it.

Internet slang's global reach broke down some language barriers. Terms like LOL, BFF, and YOLO gained recognition across dozens of countries, functioning as shared digital vocabulary. The line between online language and "real" language effectively disappeared, with generations raised on LOL and BRB now parenting kids who said "no cap" and "rizz" at the dinner table.

Full History

The academic study of internet slang kicked off in the early 2000s. David Crystal argued that the chief purpose of online slang is to "show that you're one of the gang," treating digital conversations as extensions of face-to-face interaction rather than formal writing. In a 2011 paper, researchers danah boyd and Alice Marwick described "social stenography," the practice of using obscure references, veiled abbreviations, and layered sarcasm to hide the true meaning of public social media posts from parents, teachers, and other authority figures. Internet slang was not just about speed or identity. It was also a privacy tool.

The year 2013 marked a turning point for the mainstream acceptance of internet slang. In August, Oxford Dictionaries Online added 65 new words in a single quarterly update, many straight from online culture. Selfie, emoji, FOMO, TL;DR, srsly, and derp all made the list. Katherine Connor Martin, a spokeswoman for Oxford, noted that the dictionary adds about 1,000 entries per year, tracking how people actually use language rather than dictating how they should. The batch also included tech terms like "bitcoin," "Internet of things," "phablet," and "MOOC".

The media response was massive. NPR highlighted the quirkier additions like "dappy" and "squee". TIME characterized the entries as "symbols of culture as we know it in 2013". TechCrunch pointed out that Oxford Dictionaries Online operates separately from the older Oxford English Dictionary, updating more frequently and adopting new language faster. The Atlantic took a satirical approach, publishing a piece that crammed every single new word into one breathless paragraph, a performance of internet-era language overload in itself.

An important dimension of internet slang is its deep connection to African American Vernacular English. Many terms associated with "Gen Z slang" actually originated in Black communities long before going viral online. Words like "slay," "tea," "lit," "bussin," "cap," and "woke" all trace back to AAVE. The internet's tendency to broadly adopt speech from Black communities can be harmful because the wider audience "doesn't understand the context of the original purpose of that word," as Aleksic warned.

Video games formed another major source feeding into internet slang. Terms like "NPC," "main character," "side quest," and "lore" migrated from gaming into everyday conversation, much the way sports metaphors entered general English decades earlier. The gaming world also produced "GG" (good game) as an all-purpose sign-off that spread far beyond its original context.

By the 2020s, the speed of slang turnover reached a new extreme. Aleksic observed that slang "treated as a meme" tends to get used and quickly discarded, while terms filling genuine lexical gaps stick around. The lifecycle had compressed so much that dictionaries could barely keep pace, with terms rising and falling within weeks.

Institutions took notice behind the scenes. The FBI began maintaining an active glossary of internet slang to help agents parse online communications. HuffPost noted in its coverage of the 2013 Oxford update that "the OED comprehensively tracks changes to English. If we all start using a word, it will get added to the OED. End of story". The 1993 book *Jargon: An Informal Dictionary of Computer Terms*, one of the earliest printed attempts to catalog internet language, seemed almost quaint compared to the scale of the challenge three decades later.

Fun Facts

The FBI maintains an active glossary of internet slang to help agents understand online communications during investigations.

The 1993 book *Jargon: An Informal Dictionary of Computer Terms*, written by author Robin Williams (not the actor), was one of the earliest printed efforts to catalog internet language.

The August 2013 Oxford Dictionaries batch ranged far beyond web slang. The full list of 43 new entries included "jorts" (jean shorts), "omnishambles" (a comprehensively mismanaged situation), and "food baby" (a protruding stomach after a big meal).

Oxford Dictionaries had already added LOL, OMG, and "lolz" in previous quarterly updates before the 2013 batch brought in emoji, FOMO, and TL;DR.

The social media verb "unlike," meaning to withdraw approval of a previously liked post, was among the 2013 additions, reflecting how platforms were creating entirely new actions that needed names.

Derivatives & Variations

Leetspeak (1337speak):

A sub-dialect substituting numbers and symbols for letters (e.g., "1337" for "elite"), popular in early hacking and gaming communities[6].

LOLspeak / I Can Has Cheezburger:

A deliberately infantile grammar ("I can has cheezburger") created for captioned cat images, spawning an entire website and content network[6].

DoggoLingo:

An animal-specific internet dialect featuring "heckin," "bork," "smol," and "hooman," used primarily for dog content across Reddit and Instagram[10].

Algospeak:

A modern adaptation where users alter words to bypass content moderation algorithms on platforms like TikTok, such as "unalive" instead of "kill"[13].

SMS language:

The mobile-specific branch of internet shorthand, driven by character limits and multi-tap keyboards, with overlapping but distinct conventions from web-based slang[7].

Frequently Asked Questions

References (24)

  1. 1
    Buzzworthy words added to Oxford Dictionaries Online – squee! - OxfordWords blogarticle
  2. 2
    Oxford English Dictionary adds twerk, selfie, unlike - chicagotribune.comarticle
  3. 3
    Twerk and Selfie Added to Dictionary | Mashablearticle
  4. 4
    Internet Slang - Know Your Memeencyclopedia
  5. 5
    Internet slangencyclopedia
  6. 6
    Internet Slang - Urban Dictionarydictionary
  7. 7
    SMS languageencyclopedia
  8. 8
    Instant messagingencyclopedia
  9. 9
    Padonkaffsky jargonencyclopedia
  10. 10
    Disemvoweling - Wikipediaencyclopedia
  11. 11
    Acronym - Wikipediaencyclopedia
  12. 12
    How to Fit Every New Word in the Oxford Dictionary Into 1 Article - The Atlanticarticle
  13. 13
    From LOL to Rizz The Living Evolution of Internet Slang Across Generations Article - ArticleTed - News and Articlesarticle
  14. 14
    Digital Etymology: The Wild, Wild West of Online Slangarticle
  15. 15
    Evolution Of Internet Lingo: How Online Language Has Changed Over The Yearsarticle
  16. 16
    Best Internet Memes and Phrases of 2024article
  17. 17
    Internet Slang & Meme Symbolism - by Farah Louizaarticle
  18. 18
    What's With All the Internet Slang Anyway? - The History of the Webarticle
  19. 19
    Oxford English Dictionary Adds Selfie, Derp, FOMO And More Words We Use Online | HuffPost Lifearticle
  20. 20
    Twerk and Selfie Added to Oxford Dictionary - Business Insiderarticle
  21. 21
    Dictionary Adds ‘Badassery’, ‘Selfie’ and ‘Twerk’ | TIME.comarticle
  22. 22
    Twerk, Selfie, Bitcoin, Others Added To Oxford Dictionary As Silicon Valley, Middle Schoolers Push English Language Forward | TechCruncharticle
  23. 23
    'Twerk' Sashays Into Oxford's Online Dictionary, 'Srsly' : The Two-Way : NPRarticle
  24. 24
    Twerk and Selfie Added to Dictionary | Mashablearticle

Internet Slang

Internet culture / language traditionactive

Also known as: Netspeak · cyber-slang · chatspeak · SMS speak · digispeak · IM language

Internet slang is the evolving lexicon of abbreviations, acronyms, and intentional misspellings born from 1990s chat rooms and message boards, spanning generations from LOL and leetspeak to rizz and no cap.

Internet slang is the sprawling collection of abbreviations, acronyms, intentional misspellings, and informal expressions that people developed to communicate online. Born out of necessity in early chat rooms and message boards, terms like LOL, BRB, and AFK became the building blocks of a new digital language. From leetspeak and LOLcat grammar to rizz and no cap, internet slang reinvents itself with each new platform and generation.

TL;DR

Internet slang is the sprawling collection of abbreviations, acronyms, intentional misspellings, and informal expressions that people developed to communicate online.

Overview

Internet slang covers a wide range of non-standard language forms that people developed for online communication. The practice goes by many names, including netspeak, chatspeak, SMS speak, and digispeak. It includes acronyms (LOL, BRB, FOMO), intentional misspellings (pwned, teh), phonetic contractions (gonna, cus), hashtag conventions, and entire sub-dialects like leetspeak. The primary drives behind internet slang are efficiency and identity. Early users needed shortcuts for slow connections and character-limited platforms, while later generations adopted slang to signal belonging in online communities.

What makes internet slang different from ordinary slang is its speed. A phrase can go global on TikTok in days and feel outdated within weeks. Linguist Adam Aleksic noted that "for a word to really work, it needs to be unobtrusive" and must "fill a lexical gap". David Crystal, a pioneer in Internet linguistics, argued that online conversation more closely resembles face-to-face speech than formal writing, with slang functioning as the primary way users show they're "one of the gang".

The roots of internet slang stretch back to the late 1970s, when users of early communications networks like Usenet began developing their own shorthand. These first abbreviations were practical. On text-based systems where connections were slow and every keystroke cost time, compressing "laughing out loud" to LOL or "be right back" to BRB made real sense. LOL itself appeared in online bulletin board systems as early as 1989, predating the mainstream web by years.

Some abbreviations go back much further than the internet. "OMG" was used by Admiral John Fisher in a 1917 letter to Winston Churchill, and telegraph operators in the 19th century used similar shorthand when chatting between official messages. The impulse to compress language for electronic media is well over a century old.

As chat rooms and IRC gained popularity through the 1990s, internet slang moved beyond simple shortcuts. Gamers produced "pwned" from a typing error and "noob" from "newbie". Subcultures on message boards each developed what linguists would recognize as distinct online dialects. Language was becoming a playground where misspelling was not ignorance but style.

Origin & Background

Platform
Usenet, BBS, IRC
Creator
Community-created
Date
Late 1970s

The roots of internet slang stretch back to the late 1970s, when users of early communications networks like Usenet began developing their own shorthand. These first abbreviations were practical. On text-based systems where connections were slow and every keystroke cost time, compressing "laughing out loud" to LOL or "be right back" to BRB made real sense. LOL itself appeared in online bulletin board systems as early as 1989, predating the mainstream web by years.

Some abbreviations go back much further than the internet. "OMG" was used by Admiral John Fisher in a 1917 letter to Winston Churchill, and telegraph operators in the 19th century used similar shorthand when chatting between official messages. The impulse to compress language for electronic media is well over a century old.

As chat rooms and IRC gained popularity through the 1990s, internet slang moved beyond simple shortcuts. Gamers produced "pwned" from a typing error and "noob" from "newbie". Subcultures on message boards each developed what linguists would recognize as distinct online dialects. Language was becoming a playground where misspelling was not ignorance but style.

How It Spread

The late 1990s and early 2000s brought instant messaging into millions of homes. AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger created real-time text conversations that demanded rapid responses. Shorthand exploded: TTYL (talk to you later), IDK (I don't know), and ILY (I love you) joined the standard vocabulary of a generation typing on desktop computers.

Mobile phones pushed SMS language into the mix. Character limits on text messages and the multi-tap keyboards of pre-smartphone handsets made abbreviation almost mandatory. "Tmr" replaced "tomorrow," "l8r" replaced "later," and numbers substituted for syllables wherever possible.

Social media platforms accelerated the cycle starting around 2005. Twitter's 140-character cap put a premium on compression and turned hashtags into a new form of commentary. Tumblr specialized in exaggerated emotional expression, with keysmash sequences like "asdfghjkl" and ALL CAPS standing in for tone of voice. Reddit and 4chan developed their own distinct vocabularies, each platform functioning as its own dialect zone.

The smartphone era of the 2010s layered emojis, autocorrect, and visual elements onto text-based slang. Vine's six-second videos gave birth to catchphrases that spread faster than any typed abbreviation. Then TikTok supercharged the entire process, cycling through slang at a pace that left linguists scrambling to keep up.

How to Use This Meme

Internet slang doesn't follow a single template like most memes. Instead, it operates through several common patterns:

Acronyms and initialisms compress phrases into letter sequences. LOL (laughing out loud), BRB (be right back), FOMO (fear of missing out), and TL;DR (too long; didn't read) are among the most widely recognized examples. Users typically deploy these in casual text conversations, social media comments, and online chats.

Intentional misspelling and phonetic spelling add tone or signal insider status. "Teh" instead of "the," "pwned" instead of "owned," and "srsly" instead of "seriously" all started as errors or shortcuts that became deliberate style choices.

Hashtag conventions turn phrases into tags serving double duty as commentary and categorization. Writing "#blessed" after a humblebrag or "#IYKYK" (if you know, you know) works as both label and wink.

Generational slang includes terms that cycle rapidly through communities. Words like "rizz" (charisma), "no cap" (no lie), "bussin" (extremely good), and "slay" shift in connotation depending on who uses them and when.

The general rule of thumb: match the slang to the audience. What works in a Discord server can misfire badly in a work email.

Cultural Impact

The 2013 Oxford Dictionaries update sparked a public debate about language and the internet. HuffPost acknowledged that "it may seem like the Internet is ruining our ability to communicate" but pointed to new concepts like "Internet of things" and "space tourism" as evidence that the web's influence on language was not all abbreviation and misspelling. Linguists like Crystal argued that online conversation actually expanded what language can do rather than degrading it.

Internet slang's global reach broke down some language barriers. Terms like LOL, BFF, and YOLO gained recognition across dozens of countries, functioning as shared digital vocabulary. The line between online language and "real" language effectively disappeared, with generations raised on LOL and BRB now parenting kids who said "no cap" and "rizz" at the dinner table.

Full History

The academic study of internet slang kicked off in the early 2000s. David Crystal argued that the chief purpose of online slang is to "show that you're one of the gang," treating digital conversations as extensions of face-to-face interaction rather than formal writing. In a 2011 paper, researchers danah boyd and Alice Marwick described "social stenography," the practice of using obscure references, veiled abbreviations, and layered sarcasm to hide the true meaning of public social media posts from parents, teachers, and other authority figures. Internet slang was not just about speed or identity. It was also a privacy tool.

The year 2013 marked a turning point for the mainstream acceptance of internet slang. In August, Oxford Dictionaries Online added 65 new words in a single quarterly update, many straight from online culture. Selfie, emoji, FOMO, TL;DR, srsly, and derp all made the list. Katherine Connor Martin, a spokeswoman for Oxford, noted that the dictionary adds about 1,000 entries per year, tracking how people actually use language rather than dictating how they should. The batch also included tech terms like "bitcoin," "Internet of things," "phablet," and "MOOC".

The media response was massive. NPR highlighted the quirkier additions like "dappy" and "squee". TIME characterized the entries as "symbols of culture as we know it in 2013". TechCrunch pointed out that Oxford Dictionaries Online operates separately from the older Oxford English Dictionary, updating more frequently and adopting new language faster. The Atlantic took a satirical approach, publishing a piece that crammed every single new word into one breathless paragraph, a performance of internet-era language overload in itself.

An important dimension of internet slang is its deep connection to African American Vernacular English. Many terms associated with "Gen Z slang" actually originated in Black communities long before going viral online. Words like "slay," "tea," "lit," "bussin," "cap," and "woke" all trace back to AAVE. The internet's tendency to broadly adopt speech from Black communities can be harmful because the wider audience "doesn't understand the context of the original purpose of that word," as Aleksic warned.

Video games formed another major source feeding into internet slang. Terms like "NPC," "main character," "side quest," and "lore" migrated from gaming into everyday conversation, much the way sports metaphors entered general English decades earlier. The gaming world also produced "GG" (good game) as an all-purpose sign-off that spread far beyond its original context.

By the 2020s, the speed of slang turnover reached a new extreme. Aleksic observed that slang "treated as a meme" tends to get used and quickly discarded, while terms filling genuine lexical gaps stick around. The lifecycle had compressed so much that dictionaries could barely keep pace, with terms rising and falling within weeks.

Institutions took notice behind the scenes. The FBI began maintaining an active glossary of internet slang to help agents parse online communications. HuffPost noted in its coverage of the 2013 Oxford update that "the OED comprehensively tracks changes to English. If we all start using a word, it will get added to the OED. End of story". The 1993 book *Jargon: An Informal Dictionary of Computer Terms*, one of the earliest printed attempts to catalog internet language, seemed almost quaint compared to the scale of the challenge three decades later.

Fun Facts

The FBI maintains an active glossary of internet slang to help agents understand online communications during investigations.

The 1993 book *Jargon: An Informal Dictionary of Computer Terms*, written by author Robin Williams (not the actor), was one of the earliest printed efforts to catalog internet language.

The August 2013 Oxford Dictionaries batch ranged far beyond web slang. The full list of 43 new entries included "jorts" (jean shorts), "omnishambles" (a comprehensively mismanaged situation), and "food baby" (a protruding stomach after a big meal).

Oxford Dictionaries had already added LOL, OMG, and "lolz" in previous quarterly updates before the 2013 batch brought in emoji, FOMO, and TL;DR.

The social media verb "unlike," meaning to withdraw approval of a previously liked post, was among the 2013 additions, reflecting how platforms were creating entirely new actions that needed names.

Derivatives & Variations

Leetspeak (1337speak):

A sub-dialect substituting numbers and symbols for letters (e.g., "1337" for "elite"), popular in early hacking and gaming communities[6].

LOLspeak / I Can Has Cheezburger:

A deliberately infantile grammar ("I can has cheezburger") created for captioned cat images, spawning an entire website and content network[6].

DoggoLingo:

An animal-specific internet dialect featuring "heckin," "bork," "smol," and "hooman," used primarily for dog content across Reddit and Instagram[10].

Algospeak:

A modern adaptation where users alter words to bypass content moderation algorithms on platforms like TikTok, such as "unalive" instead of "kill"[13].

SMS language:

The mobile-specific branch of internet shorthand, driven by character limits and multi-tap keyboards, with overlapping but distinct conventions from web-based slang[7].

Frequently Asked Questions

References (24)

  1. 1
    Buzzworthy words added to Oxford Dictionaries Online – squee! - OxfordWords blogarticle
  2. 2
    Oxford English Dictionary adds twerk, selfie, unlike - chicagotribune.comarticle
  3. 3
    Twerk and Selfie Added to Dictionary | Mashablearticle
  4. 4
    Internet Slang - Know Your Memeencyclopedia
  5. 5
    Internet slangencyclopedia
  6. 6
    Internet Slang - Urban Dictionarydictionary
  7. 7
    SMS languageencyclopedia
  8. 8
    Instant messagingencyclopedia
  9. 9
    Padonkaffsky jargonencyclopedia
  10. 10
    Disemvoweling - Wikipediaencyclopedia
  11. 11
    Acronym - Wikipediaencyclopedia
  12. 12
    How to Fit Every New Word in the Oxford Dictionary Into 1 Article - The Atlanticarticle
  13. 13
    From LOL to Rizz The Living Evolution of Internet Slang Across Generations Article - ArticleTed - News and Articlesarticle
  14. 14
    Digital Etymology: The Wild, Wild West of Online Slangarticle
  15. 15
    Evolution Of Internet Lingo: How Online Language Has Changed Over The Yearsarticle
  16. 16
    Best Internet Memes and Phrases of 2024article
  17. 17
    Internet Slang & Meme Symbolism - by Farah Louizaarticle
  18. 18
    What's With All the Internet Slang Anyway? - The History of the Webarticle
  19. 19
    Oxford English Dictionary Adds Selfie, Derp, FOMO And More Words We Use Online | HuffPost Lifearticle
  20. 20
    Twerk and Selfie Added to Oxford Dictionary - Business Insiderarticle
  21. 21
    Dictionary Adds ‘Badassery’, ‘Selfie’ and ‘Twerk’ | TIME.comarticle
  22. 22
    Twerk, Selfie, Bitcoin, Others Added To Oxford Dictionary As Silicon Valley, Middle Schoolers Push English Language Forward | TechCruncharticle
  23. 23
    'Twerk' Sashays Into Oxford's Online Dictionary, 'Srsly' : The Two-Way : NPRarticle
  24. 24
    Twerk and Selfie Added to Dictionary | Mashablearticle