Deep Lore / Part 3
The 10 Stages of Slang Death
From forum post to your dad saying it at Thanksgiving. Every stage, mapped.
The 10 Stages
The full lifecycle of a slang term, from spark to graveyard
These stages describe the classic pipeline. Void Path terms sometimes enter midstream, sometimes skip it entirely.
The Spark
Every word starts somewhere. 'Rizz' started in NYC streaming culture. 'Skibidi' started as a weird YouTube animation. 'Mogging' started on a 4chan fitness board in 2016. At this stage, the word belongs to its community and nobody else has heard of it.
The Crossover
A creator from (or adjacent to) the original community uses the term in a video. This is the moment of context collapse: the word leaves its original meaning behind and enters a new environment.
The Algorithm Takes Notice
The algorithm's engagement sensors light up. More creators use the term to ride the trend. The word starts appearing in unrelated content because creators know trending language gets pushed by the algorithm.
High School Hallways
The term jumps from screens to spoken language. High schoolers are the first real-life adopters. This is peak 'cool' for the word.
Middle School Explosion
The word hits critical mass. Middle schoolers adopt it with maximum enthusiasm and minimum understanding of origin. It's used as a noun, verb, adjective, and exclamation. This is where your 9th grader starts saying 'that's dead.'
Peak & Plateau
Maximum saturation. The word is understood by almost everyone under 30. Using it no longer signals that you're in-the-know. It signals that you exist on the internet, which is not the same thing.
The Brand Grabs
A major brand uses the word in an ad. This is universally recognized as a death knell. When Wendy's tweets 'that's bussin fr fr' or a car commercial uses 'rizz,' the word has been strip-mined of any cultural value. Teens physically recoil.
The Explainer
A CNN anchor looks directly into the camera and says, 'So, what exactly IS no cap?' This is the linguistic equivalent of an autopsy: the word is being examined because it is no longer alive.
Fun fact: you are currently reading a website that exists at this stage of the pipeline. I am aware of the irony.
Parent Adoption
The final indignity. A parent uses the term sincerely. In a text, at dinner, in front of their kid's friends. This is where words come to die.
This is also the stage where rottalk.com lives. I know. I'm at peace with it.
The Graveyard (or Resurrection)
Two possible outcomes. Most terms just fade. They join 'YOLO,' 'on fleek,' and 'swag' in the great slang graveyard. But occasionally, a term gets resurrected and used ironically by a new generation. 'Groovy' has been through this cycle multiple times.
🪦 The Graveyard
On Fleek
2014-2016
“Eyebrows were never the same”
YOLO
2011-2013
“Lived fast, died young. Appropriately.”
Swag
2010-2014
“Had swag. Lost swag. Became swag's ghost.”
Bae
2013-2015
“Before Anyone Else, after everyone else.”
Lit
2015-2019
“The flame went out.”
Fam
2015-2018
“We were never really family.”
Squad Goals
2015-2017
“The squad disbanded.”
Dabbing
2015-2016
“Rest in Cam Newton.”
The Speed of Death
It's getting faster
The lifecycle used to take years. “Cool” has been slang for almost a century and is still going. “Groovy” lasted a solid decade. Even early internet slang like “LOL” took years to spread.
Now? A term can go from Stage 1 to Stage 8 in weeks. The algorithm compresses the entire lifecycle. Which means: by the time you see a word trending on TikTok, it may already be past its peak.
Bar length = relative total lifecycle duration. The bars are getting shorter.
Source: Meltwater analysis, December 2024. Aleksic, Adam. NPR interview, July 2025.
Where Are YOU in the Pipeline?
Select your role to find out where you fit
The real-time age gap between your 6th grader and your 9th grader using the same term? About 3-6 months. The gap between your 9th grader and you? About 1-2 years. The gap between the original community and you? Could be a decade.
The Survivors
The rare terms that don't die
What makes a term survive?
- → It fills a genuine linguistic gap (“ghosting”)
- → It's genuinely useful (“doomscroll”)
- → It transcends its origin community (“cool”)
- → It evolves with usage (“troll”)
80+ years and counting
Likely permanent. Fills a real gap.
Permanent. Evolved with the internet.
Multiple revivals. Unkillable.
Likely permanent. Too useful.
Likely permanent. Too real.
Permanent.
Now You Know
The next time your kid uses a word you don't recognize, you can skip the panic and ask yourself: where is this word in the pipeline? Is it harmless brainrot from TikTok? Is it something with roots in communities you should know about? Or is it just a word that will be dead by next month?
Either way, I've got you covered.
This page was written by an Xennial dad and reviewed by zero actual linguists. But I cited my sources, which is more than most TikTok explainers can say. If I got something wrong, I'd love to hear about it, especially from anyone under 16, because you're probably right.
Sources
- Aleksic, Adam. Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language. Knopf, 2025.
- Aleksic, Adam. Interview with NPR Weekend Edition, July 2025.
- Aleksic, Adam. Interview with Scientific American, August 2025.
- Kaul, Abhinandan. “From Plato to Skibidi.” Medium, December 2025.
- Meltwater. “What was the most viral slang term of 2024?” December 2024.