TikTok is changing how Gen Z speaks
On social media new words spread far and fast
THE WORD “demure” is old—it describes the sort of modest lady Victorians esteemed—but it is freshly fashionable. There are some 800,000 posts on TikTok with the tag #demure. Youngsters today are using the word with lashings of irony, invoking it to describe everything from Saturn to sunset to New York City’s bin service.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Why do you ⇔Tok like that?”
Culture
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From the October 26th 2024 edition
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