‘Demure’ and other weird Gen Z slang

Updated Nov. 27, 2024, 6:48 a.m. | By East Coast Breakfast / Skyye Ndlovu

Dictionary.com has deemed 'Demure' as 2024's Word of the Year, but that's not the only new word Gen Zs gave us this year...

Demure. The word that Dictionary.com has deemed the word of 2024... and that’s exactly how this story goes; ‘Very demure. Very cutesy. Very mindful.’

The word that’s captured the hearts of social media girlies everywhere has been deemed the Word of the Year, which isn’t a surprise. Instagram used to be a sea of demure, very mindful, and some not-so-cutesy people.

But aside from this word, the year has introduced us to some crazy new words; and Gen Zs are mostly to blame. Seriously guys: what is 'Skibidi'?

That’s not the only one though. Below are some of the other ‘skibidi’ words of 2024 (I hope I used that correctly!).

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Let’s start with Demure. It means reserved, modest, or shy in appearance or behaviour. It’s the calm, modest kid in a room full of chaos. While the rest of Gen Z slang is loud, demure feels like it accidentally wandered into the wrong TikTok trend.

Then there’s Rizz, short for charisma. If someone has “unspoken rizz”, they can charm anyone effortlessly. But beware—if you try too hard, you’ll lose your rizz faster than someone saying “Netflix and chill” in 2024. It’s essentially the millennial equivalent of “smooth operator”. For example, ‘the person writing this article has crazy rizz bro’. Facts!!

Enter Skibidi, an earworm of a nonsense word tied to an internet trend involving singing toilet heads (yes, really). It means everything and nothing. It can express random energy or chaos; like ‘that party last night was pure Skibidi toilet’. What? Or, to react to something funny or bizarre; like yelling 'Skibidi' when your friend falls during a TikTok video. SKIBIDI!! Haha; so funny (not).

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It’s highly likely that you’ve come across one of these words and you had no idea what little Johnny was saying, which makes one realise just how easy it is to become extinct.

New words become popularised and the next thing you know, you’re too old to understand anything. One can only wonder how long it’ll be before they’re seemingly and inevitably deemed too old.

Nevertheless, the key is to remain very demure, very cutesy, and very mindful.