Every few years, when a new generation of teenagers concocts a glossary of words and phrases meant only for them – and somehow manages to spread it universally- you have to wonder: how does it keep happening? If you went digging, would you find one single person who inadvertently created a word that travelled across the world? Imagine finding that person behind every such word, across generations – that would be quite a club.
In a short promotional video for his film Project Hail Mary, Gosling chats in Gen Z lingo with a young man, tossing around words like ‘tea’ (gossip), ‘giving’ (a vibe), ‘slay’ (to succeed), and ‘no cap’ (no lying). The humour lies entirely in how unnatural it feels.
From Bollywood to Parliament: Everyone is trying to keep up
In India, younger actors seem more looped in. Ananya Panday casually defines ‘giving’ and ‘NGL’ (not gonna lie), while senior actors often appear clueless in viral quizzes. Then there are those like Dulquer Salmaan, who gets terms like ‘tea’ and ‘simp’ (someone overly obsessed), crediting his Gen Z nephews for the education.
Politicians, too, have been pulled into the mix. During an interaction with students, Rahul Gandhi joked, “Now I am in trouble,” when asked to define ‘pookie’ (a term of endearment) and ‘rizz’ (charisma). In another video, Shashi Tharoor – whose name is practically synonymous with an expansive vocabulary – fails to guess ‘finsta’ (fake Instagram) and ‘OOTD’ (outfit of the day).
Most take it in good spirit. After all, every generation has had its own secret code – words that kept parents and teachers at a distance. You can spot them easily in older novels or sitcoms. The 70s had ‘groovy’, ‘burn’, and ‘bummer’. The 80s brought ‘radical’, ‘like’ as filler, and ‘dweeb’. The 90s, immortalised in Friends and Clueless, gave us ‘sup’, ‘wicked’, and ‘as if’.
More than a slang: A language of identity
But while slang has always created distance between generations, Gen Z lingo seems to have built something closer to a wall.
“In the old days, these words were a form of rebellion against older generations. Now, they act as explainers – exposing phenomena that existed but remained invisible,” says writer and professor Manu Remakant. Terms like ‘mansplaining’ (popularised through Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me ) and ‘gaslighting’ (from the 1938 film Gaslight ) didn’t just trend – they named experiences, making them visible.
‘Himpathy’ follows a similar pattern—describing sympathy extended to powerful men accused of wrongdoing. Other terms like body shaming, ghosting, cancel culture, toxic behaviour, and virtue signalling have moved from niche usage into everyday vocabulary, often questioning hypocrisy or calling out unacceptable behaviour.
Remakant also points to how this evolving vocabulary creates micro-societies. “It allows membership for those who identify with these terms, usually within a certain age group. But it can also distance them from the larger world. While this language engages deeply with personal politics, it often remains disconnected from broader concerns, like elections,” he says.
For better or worse, these words will fade. ‘Rizz’ and ‘giving’ will one day feel nostalgic, just as older slang does now, while Gen Alpha begins shaping its own lexicon – if it hasn’t already.
What remains curious, though, is how slang travelled across the world even before the internet put language at our fingertips. The answer, perhaps, lies in art, literature, and pop culture. Long before algorithms, stories carried words across borders – and they still do.
From Hollywood to Indian politics, even Ryan Gosling and Rahul Gandhi are trying to keep up with Gen Z’s ever-evolving slang. (Image created via Canva) 
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