Gaming is increasingly influencing our language. The term “Kek” from World of Warcraft almost made it to the Youth Word of the Year 2019 – or where do these words come from?
The vote for the “Youth Word of the Year” has always been an interesting topic in recent years, prompting discussions or feelings of embarrassment – depending on whether one received the youth’s choice of words with interest or wanted to lament the “degradation of the German language”.
In 2019, this vote was skipped. A comparison portal stepped in to determine the most commonly used youth words. Two representatives from this new Top 10 are likely to be known by gamers, as their origins come from the video game sector – or not?
How were the words determined? To find out which words from youth slang were used particularly frequently, the Google search queries for the most well-known words in youth slang were examined. This was conducted by the site vergleich.org and resulted in quite clear findings.
“Kek” ranks 4th: Anyone who has played World of Warcraft in recent years is likely familiar with the term “Kek”. Alliance players can read this when a member of the Horde types “lol” in the chat, meaning they want to laugh.
Since players from the Horde and Alliance usually do not speak to each other or understand each other (unless they use a specific potion), written words become illegible and turn into “nonsense words” of a fantasy language. For the term “lol”, this translates to “kek”.
It didn’t take long before players started intentionally typing “kek”, even without the automatic language conversion in the game.
However, Kek has another origin; it is frequently used in the German rap scene in lyrics since 2002, even before the release of World of Warcraft. Here, it is mainly an insult and a synonym for “loser” or “wannabe” types. This was primarily spread by lyrics from Bushido – who also played a lot of WoW.
“Honor taken” ranks 8th: Another term in the Top 10 is the phrase “Honor taken”. This also has a video game context and is often used in shooters. When a player has defeated another and the loser posed little resistance or serious threat, it is common to say that “the loser has had their honor taken”.
In a broader sense, it also implies that one has allowed oneself to be deceived or led by someone, even though one should know better.
What other words were there? If you’re interested in the other words, here is the Top 10 most searched youth slang words from 2019:
| Rank | Expression / Word | Meaning |
| 1 | Cringe | Embarrassment |
| 2 | Habibi | Term of endearment (darling, sweetheart) |
| 3 | Alman | Person with “cliché-German” behavior |
| 4 | Kek | Loser, wannabe |
| 5 | Bratan | Colleague, buddy, brother |
| 6 | Gönnjamin | Person who indulges in luxury |
| 7 | Hustlen | Hard work |
| 8 | Honor taken | Someone has allowed themselves to be defeated or led by the nose |
| 9 | Cornern | Loitering at street corners |
| 10 | Tchuligom | Apology (play on spelling) |
Clearly, gaming is having a greater impact on the development of our language year after year.
Do you use these words? Or do they not belong to your vocabulary at all?
