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Gyatt
Internet slang word From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Gyatt (/ɡjɑːt/ ⓘ) (also commonly spelled as gyat) is a term from African-American Vernacular English originally used in exclamation, such as "gyatt damn". In the 2020s, the word experienced a semantic shift and gained the additional meaning of "a person, usually a woman or man, with large and attractive buttocks and sometimes an hourglass figure".[1][2]
With slightly varying definitions, gyatt garnered virality on the social media platform TikTok in 2022[3] in part due to its frequent use by various online streamers.[4] It has become an internet meme, particularly employed and popularized by Generation Alpha.[5][6]
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Etymology
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According to American linguist John McWhorter, the term "evolved from 'goddamn'."[7] Kelly Elizabeth Wright, a research fellow in language sciences at Virginia Tech, claims that the provenance of gyatt is thought to be Black Southern, Jamaican, among other communities of the African diaspora.[7] The term is attributed to having roots of African-American Vernacular English.[8]
2022 semantic shift
The current meaning of the term gyatt was coined by online streamer YourRAGE, who used it to describe a physically attractive woman, and it was popularized by Kai Cenat, an American Twitch streamer.[9][10][11]
Everybody used to say "god damn" or "golly" but I said it weird. I'd always say "gyatt", I would never say "god damn". Chat realized that, and a way of making fun of me in 2020, they started typing "gyatt" to mock me.
— YourRAGE, "THE ONLY DEFINITION OF #GYATT 😒 #gyat #gyatttttttt" (2023)[12]
On October 2, 2023, a TikTok account under the username @ovp.9 posted a short video of a character from the online video game Fortnite "singing" to a musical parody of the 2021 song "ecstacy" by Suicidal-Idol.[13] The parody featured multiple internet culture terms, including Skibidi Toilet and rizz.[14] According to The New York Times, the parody is cited as "a key" to the popularization of gyatt.[5]
Backronyms have been created for the term like "Girl Your Ass [is] Thick", "Girl You Ate That", "Get Your Act Together", among others.[15][16]
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Usage
According to Legit.ng, the term is commonly used by "guys when they see a girl, usually with a curvy body type," and can also be used to indicate enthusiasm or excitement.[17]
Gyatt is characterized in the media as a term used both by Generation Alpha and Generation Z.[18] However, some members of Generation Z have stated that they do not attribute the term to their cohort.[2] According to The Today Show, the term is used verbally and on messaging platforms such as Discord, TikTok, Twitch, Instagram, and YouTube.[7]
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Reception and impact
Alongside its attribution with Generation Alpha, gyatt has been of interest to digital marketers in consideration of the cohort's emerging consumer consumption.[19] The term was nominated for the American Dialect Society's 2023 Word of The Year.[7][20]
See also
References
External links
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