My delightful granddaughter Adeline is growing up.  She will soon be celebrating her tenth birthday, and she is already beginning to sound like a teenager.

The other day she saw a man on the street and called him a “Gigachad”, a term she apparently picked up at school. Neither her mother nor I had ever heard this term before.

Let me unpack this new-to-me slang term. According to the Dictionary.com, “A Chad is a stereotypical alpha male: he is depicted as an attractive, successful, muscular, cocky, and very popular among women. Chads typically resemble the common ‘dudebro’ figure of a young, athletic white male who wears trendy clothing and only enjoys popular things.” 

In my generation, a Chad would have been known as a BMOC or Big Man on Campus. Or as Joe Cool. Or as a “hottie.”

Now on to the aforementioned “Gigachad.” Wiktionary reports that, “A gigachad (Internet slang) (is) (a)n extremely muscular man often featured in memes, originating in several images posted by the Instagram account berlin.1969, identified as of Russian model Ernest Khalimov. (by extension, Internet slang, sometimes sarcastic) An extremely admirable man; a Chad among Chads.”

I mean, if you say so…

Adeline has also taken to saying, “No cap,” which means “no lie.” A young friend of the family praised something by saying, “POG, no cap.” POG means something is awesome.

If something is “sus” it’s suspicious. If you “slay”, it means you are killing the game, ie, doing really well. “Bussing” also means you’re doing well.

I mean, I try to keep up, but I’ve been around for quite a while and the language just keeps on changing.

Why aren’t things just far out and groovy anymore?

Next, we have acronyms that can puzzle the uninitiated. IYKYK means “if you know, you know” and refers to an inside joke or special knowledge for a certain group. BTD means “bored to death.” GTS is “go to sleep.”  IDK is “I don’t know.” Then there’s the well-worn TTYL (talk to you later) and TTFN (ta ta for now). Some old favorites include JK (just kidding) and LOL (laugh out loud). Then there’s ROFL (rolling on floor laughing); IMHO (in my honest opinion); TL;DR (too long; didn’t read); FOMO (fear of missing out); and YOLO (you only live once).

Just a few more, I promise!  NBD=no big deal. DMs=direct messaging someone on Instagram. And DIY=do it yourself. There are TV channels dedicated to nothing but DIY projects.

So although I know YOLO, I don’t have FOMO. JK LOL! IMHO it is never too late to learn something new. TTFN and TTYL. SMH. IYKYK.