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2020 slang
2020 was the strangest year in modern slang, because everyone was online all the time. Quarantine vocabulary (Zoom fatigue, social distancing, sourdough) entered general use overnight. TikTok exploded as a slang factory. Cottagecore, dark academia, and the aesthetic-as-identity move became dominant.
It was also peak Karen, peak OK boomer, peak quibi-jokes, peak Tiger King discourse. Most of the terms specific to 2020 conditions (lockdown vocabulary) faded; the aesthetic and TikTok-native terms persisted.
The 2020 lexicon · 6 terms
Bottom line
2020 was an inflection year. Without 2020's online-everything reality, half of 2021–2026 slang wouldn't exist.
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