Inside The Viral Words That Make You Click - Etymology Nerd - #1086
4/18/20261 hr 36 min
Adam Aleksic is a linguist, content creator, and author, best known online as the Etymology Nerd. What’s happening to language right now? Words like “rizz” and “skibidi” can make it feel like you’re out of the loop, but are you actually getting older, or has the internet transformed language into something entirely new? What does the science of linguistics say about this shift? Expect to learn why 6-7 was voted word of the year for 2025, why TikTok is becoming the most powerful linguistic engine on Earth, if there is a science to meme language, why funny language spreads and what makes it stick, why we should care about linguistics, and much more… TImestamps: (0:00) The Truth Behind “Word of the Year” (2:31) Is TikTok Rewiring How We Speak? (3:27) Do Social Platforms Create Their Own Dialects? (5:34) The Hidden Formula Behind Influencer Language (13:47) Why MrBeast Changes His Voice (17:01) Internet Subcultures and Their Unique Languages (18:33) How Newscasters Engineered Their Signature Voice (21:12) Why Sports Commentators Sound So Distinct (22:38) Is Distribution Is the Key to Going Viral? (26:44) Can You Hear Sexuality in Someone’s Voice? (33:38) Are Lesbian Accents Hard to Identify? (40:32) Should We Replace Words With Emojis? (43:37) The Surprising Evolution of Etymology (45:26) Are Young People Driving Language Change? (47:10) Why We Reject Forced Language (48:34) Where Do Filler Words Come From? (52:14) The Most Powerful Language Tricks Creators Use (54:58) How AI is Changing the Way We Speak (01:02:55) Can One Word Capture a Whole Idea? (01:04:17) Social Media vs AI: What’s Worse For Language Development? (01:08:20) How Language Shapes the Way We Think (01:10:41) What It Really Means to Be Gen Z (01:14:40) Why Teenagers Naturally Rebel (01:20:20) Rapid-Fire: The Origins of Everyday Words (01:24:37) The Power of Creating Your Own Language (01:28:21) Was QWERTY Designed to Be Inefficient? (01:31:57) Does ChatGPT Actually Speak English? (01:33:49) Is Language Evolving Faster Than Ever? (01:35:02) Where to Find Adam Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: lnkfi.re/SN-Goggins #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: lnkfi.re/SN-Peterson #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: lnkfi.re/SN-Huberman
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Clips
Showing 10 of 12Transcript preview
First 90 secondsChris Williamson· Host0:00
67 was voted word of the year in 2025 from dictionary.com. Is that cheating? Not even a word. Doesn't mean anything.
Adam Aleksic· Guest0:08
Well, you have to understand that whenever a dictionary chooses their word of the year, that's a marketing ploy by big dictionary to sell more dictionaries.
Chris Williamson· Host0:14
[laughing] Yes.
Adam Aleksic· Guest0:21
67, of course, is this reference where if you say it, you can go viral. That's the idea behind 67. That's the whole joke, that this is a possibility of getting clipped, that you can cash in on the virality of it for your own gain, and dictionary.com played that game. But every single person who did it also cashed in on that. There was a Connecticut House Representative, Bill Buckbee, who said 67 on the Connecticut's, uh, state floor. And all these people are doing the exact same thing as Talen Kinney, who is the, um, basketball player who started the trend, and all the Gen Alpha kids who are cashing in on it, like the 67 kid. All of it was a ploy for virality, and it is a realization that clip farming is the future of distribution online.
Chris Williamson· Host1:01
Wow, okay. But it's a word that doesn't mean anything and is specifically designed to be vacuous and to incite the question, "What does that mean?" Is that, is that unique?
Adam Aleksic· Guest1:13
I don't believe that it doesn't mean anything.
Chris Williamson· Host1:15
Right.
Adam Aleksic· Guest1:15
I believe even when something is absurd, absurdity is a meaning, and it's absurd for a reason. It's absurd because it's sort of critiquing the general information ecosystem. It's absurd that this would emerge as a word, but that is the meaning. The absurdity of the word is its own definition.
Chris Williamson· Host1:28
Ah, okay. So it's a story