Gen Z might just talk about you behind your back — or right to your face.
But you’d be none the wiser, as the slang-savvy generation has adapted the lingo found only in video games into their ever-expanding lexicon.
In a TikTok video with 1.5 million views, Harvard linguistics expert Adam Alexic compared the rise of gaming terms to that of commonly used sports metaphors, such as “swing and miss” or “coming out of left field” or words that originated in chess centuries ago, like “chess” or “pawn”.
“We’re now in a whole new game of people having a shared cultural knowledge of video games, so we started using that as a way to express our reality,” said Aleksic, known online as the Etymology Nerd.
“And studies show that societies consistently create metaphors from shared traditions because that’s how people best understand each other.”
While words derived from video games like “NPC” or “sidequest” may be used in a “mostly ironic way” nowadays, the seemingly silly lingo could take on a “more serious connotation” in the future, he added – so better consider these new additions to the unofficial Gen Z dictionary.
NPCs
Short for “non-player character”, NPC refers to any virtual character that is not controlled or manipulated by a player and is instead a static, pre-programmed game element.
Off-screen, when the term “NPC” is used as a descriptor, it’s offensive to imply someone who is dull or lacks independent thinking, blindly following an ideology without question.
Sidequest
In the video game, a “side quest” is an additional endeavor that is a branch of the main storyline.
In real life, it can refer to additional hobbies or other tasks that are not related to the main profession or already established interests of a person. This could mean that a person has taken a liking to new extracurriculars that are unexpected or out of character.
Nerf
Kids of the 1990s and early 2000s will remember the Nerf blasters and the noisy mayhem that ensued during a fight in the living room as pellets flew through the air.
To be “nervous” then means to be less efficient, a meaning adapted for online gaming and subsequently real life.
Where do we fall?
In games like Fortnite, players “drop” at a specific location on the virtual map. Asking “where do we fall?” is about strategizing as a team about where to land for a better chance of success. IRL, it’s about asking what the plans are or where you’re going.
Viewers of Aleksic’s viral video suggested their own jargon inspired by the game, such as “low HP” or health points to describe fatigue, or “lore” to refer to someone’s backstory.
And if this Gen Z lingo is confusing, just wait until you hear about ‘gyatt’, ‘IJBOL’ and ‘menty b’, which are just a small part of the ever-growing list of colloquialisms that are beloved by the savvy generation internet, but they annoy their older colleagues.
