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I think people also don't acknowledge how much terminology, slang and other culture originate and spread there. When it breaches into Twitter (usually through f

I think people also don't acknowledge how much terminology, slang and other culture originate and spread there. When it breaches into Twitter (usually through funposters) people kind of ignore the unsavoury origin and rewrite the history. The anonymous nature kind of provides that petri dish of "if it's strong culture, it'll survive or be modified."

giancarlostoro 1y ago
Don't forget the slurs. They have some unique slurs in there that have backstories too.
thih9 1y ago
> how much terminology, slang and other culture originate and spread there Could you give some examples? The more unexpected, the better. Preferably with sources, because tracing word origin is difficult enough on its own.
- boyesm 1y ago
  Moot lists some examples in this video: https://youtu.be/a_1UEAGCo30?si=JMVO5ox3K2AhxrMY&t=97 https://youtu.be/a_1UEAGCo30?si=JMVO5ox3K2AhxrMY&t=97
- dmonitor 1y ago
  Wiktionary has a surprisingly robust list https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_4chan_slang https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_4chan_slang
  - thih9 1y ago
    Note, some of these are associated with the far right. > fren later came to prominence on sites such as 4chan and the subreddit /r/frenworld as a dog whistle used by far-right white nationalists and fascists to refer to each other https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/fren https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/fren
    - zer8k 1y ago
      [flagged]
    - NewsaHackO 1y ago
      Why does that matter?
      - immibis 1y ago
        because if you're trying to say a site was a positive influence, because it created a number of Nazi slurs and dog whistles... complete the sentence yourself
      - anigbrowl 1y ago
        So you can have a clue who you're talking to.
    - FiniteField 1y ago
      >Note, some of these are associated with the far right. I think that should be trivially obvious based on the discussion at hand. What is interesting, though, is how so many of these terms came into public use as well-known, generic terms, despite the far right being poison to any normal person's reputation. Even many of the ones containing obviously offensive components have made it into wider use in some clipped form. Eg: - based - goyslop -> slop - normalfag -> normie
      - lukas099 1y ago
        I could be wrong but I don't think 'normie' came from 'normalfag'. I'm somewhat skeptical that 'goyslop' was the first use of 'slop' in this way too. And of course 'based' comes from rapper Lil B.
        jdminhbg 1y ago
        I think "normalfag" is a backformation from "normie"; at any rate, "normie" is itself 4chan slang that entered norm... ie... usage one way or another. "Based" was coined by Lil B but absolutely entered wide usage via being adopted as a meme by 4chan.
52-6F-62 1y ago
I thought culture was a “solved problem” now that we have AI. I can’t keep up anymore.
- 52-6F-62 1y ago
  Well either people thought my comment was to be taken literally, or they believe 4chan is culture and other hurting cultural gatherings like midsize live music venues were not.
hotfist 1y ago
This absolutely was the case for a long time. It was the cultural center of the internet where nearly all memes sprang from or gained traction and context before leaving orbit for the greater internet. That has not been the case for years though. I'd say it shifted to twitter as things shifted to inseparably political on almost all of 4chan maybe 6-8 years back and then shifted away from twitter a while after elon bought it and a lot of people started to bail. and I honestly don't know where exactly it's shifted to now, but I'd have to guess tiktok and similar new platforms. But regardless I do think 4chan has lost nearly all of it's cultural influence, but still maintains it's notoriety.
- packetlost 1y ago
  I think it's less the case now, but 4chan is absolutely still the source of new slang. It's just less concentrated on that one platform these days.
- YurgenJurgensen 1y ago
  ‘Slop’ was a 2024 Oxford Dictionary word-of-the-year candidate, and what most of the people using it probably don’t realise is that it originated on 4chan as an abbreviation of ‘goyslop’.
  - saagarjha 1y ago
    "Slop" has an etymology that extends far beyond 4chan.
- corimaith 1y ago
  People were using "Based" and Gigachad in the late 2010s for years before the mainstream picked it up in the 20s. Also for indie video games, many do find their attention and early fanbases on /v/ before they spread out to twitter. Largely because /v/ is very information sensitive and will pick up primary news usually minutes after they arrive.
el_cujo 1y ago
I think this was true at one point but not for the past 5-10 years. Based off of using the site I feel like now a lot of things start on other sites (particularly smaller accounts on twitter), get aggregated and popularized on 4chan, and then get picked up on other sites (often regurgitated back to twitter). Knowyourmeme shows this for a lot of things that people typically attribute as original to 4chan. There was definitely a time when a ton of stuff originated on 4chan but these days everything is so interconnected with the same people posting on twitter, reddit, and 4chan that I think 4chan gets a lot of unearned credit

giancarlostoro 1y ago

Don't forget the slurs. They have some unique slurs in there that have backstories too.

thih9 1y ago

> how much terminology, slang and other culture originate and spread there Could you give some examples? The more unexpected, the better. Preferably with sources, because tracing word origin is difficult enough on its own.

boyesm 1y ago
Moot lists some examples in this video: https://youtu.be/a_1UEAGCo30?si=JMVO5ox3K2AhxrMY&t=97 https://youtu.be/a_1UEAGCo30?si=JMVO5ox3K2AhxrMY&t=97
dmonitor 1y ago
Wiktionary has a surprisingly robust list https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_4chan_slang https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_4chan_slang
- thih9 1y ago
  Note, some of these are associated with the far right. > fren later came to prominence on sites such as 4chan and the subreddit /r/frenworld as a dog whistle used by far-right white nationalists and fascists to refer to each other https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/fren https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/fren
  - zer8k 1y ago
    [flagged]
  - NewsaHackO 1y ago
    Why does that matter?
    - immibis 1y ago
      because if you're trying to say a site was a positive influence, because it created a number of Nazi slurs and dog whistles... complete the sentence yourself
    - anigbrowl 1y ago
      So you can have a clue who you're talking to.
  - FiniteField 1y ago
    >Note, some of these are associated with the far right. I think that should be trivially obvious based on the discussion at hand. What is interesting, though, is how so many of these terms came into public use as well-known, generic terms, despite the far right being poison to any normal person's reputation. Even many of the ones containing obviously offensive components have made it into wider use in some clipped form. Eg: - based - goyslop -> slop - normalfag -> normie
    - lukas099 1y ago
      I could be wrong but I don't think 'normie' came from 'normalfag'. I'm somewhat skeptical that 'goyslop' was the first use of 'slop' in this way too. And of course 'based' comes from rapper Lil B.
      - jdminhbg 1y ago
        I think "normalfag" is a backformation from "normie"; at any rate, "normie" is itself 4chan slang that entered norm... ie... usage one way or another. "Based" was coined by Lil B but absolutely entered wide usage via being adopted as a meme by 4chan.

52-6F-62 1y ago

I thought culture was a “solved problem” now that we have AI. I can’t keep up anymore.

52-6F-62 1y ago
Well either people thought my comment was to be taken literally, or they believe 4chan is culture and other hurting cultural gatherings like midsize live music venues were not.

hotfist 1y ago

This absolutely was the case for a long time. It was the cultural center of the internet where nearly all memes sprang from or gained traction and context before leaving orbit for the greater internet. That has not been the case for years though. I'd say it shifted to twitter as things shifted to inseparably political on almost all of 4chan maybe 6-8 years back and then shifted away from twitter a while after elon bought it and a lot of people started to bail. and I honestly don't know where exactly it's shifted to now, but I'd have to guess tiktok and similar new platforms. But regardless I do think 4chan has lost nearly all of it's cultural influence, but still maintains it's notoriety.

packetlost 1y ago
I think it's less the case now, but 4chan is absolutely still the source of new slang. It's just less concentrated on that one platform these days.
YurgenJurgensen 1y ago
‘Slop’ was a 2024 Oxford Dictionary word-of-the-year candidate, and what most of the people using it probably don’t realise is that it originated on 4chan as an abbreviation of ‘goyslop’.
- saagarjha 1y ago
  "Slop" has an etymology that extends far beyond 4chan.
corimaith 1y ago
People were using "Based" and Gigachad in the late 2010s for years before the mainstream picked it up in the 20s. Also for indie video games, many do find their attention and early fanbases on /v/ before they spread out to twitter. Largely because /v/ is very information sensitive and will pick up primary news usually minutes after they arrive.

el_cujo 1y ago

I think this was true at one point but not for the past 5-10 years. Based off of using the site I feel like now a lot of things start on other sites (particularly smaller accounts on twitter), get aggregated and popularized on 4chan, and then get picked up on other sites (often regurgitated back to twitter). Knowyourmeme shows this for a lot of things that people typically attribute as original to 4chan. There was definitely a time when a ton of stuff originated on 4chan but these days everything is so interconnected with the same people posting on twitter, reddit, and 4chan that I think 4chan gets a lot of unearned credit