The Urban Dictionary en a site over 23 years old, which was already on the Internet when a good handful of those who read The Output were not even there yet.
It was created by Aaron Peckman in 99, at California Polytechnic University and basically is a dictionary of slang and street expressions. Initially, Peckman created it to capture the difference in colloquial expressions among young people in various parts of California, but it soon spread throughout the United States and from there to the world.
If you want to know exactly what something means, what those abbreviations mean or the new expression that your little brother does not get out of his mouth, you go to find it in The Urban Dictionary and, by the way, you feel old because you no longer know how the kids today.
Of course, it is mainly in English, although there are words in Spanish and you learn a few curious things. In addition, it not only collects jargon, but also names and other concepts, mixing humor with fairly precise definitions.
The Urban Dictionary and its political incorrectness
With more than 8 million definitions already, and words and expressions from all over the world (although the dictionary explanation is always in English), it is estimated that it has about 70 million visitors per month and, above all, it’s very politically incorrect.
The definitions of the expressions are usually correct, but there is not just one and, Most of the time, they are funny, obscene, rude and all at the same time.
To give you an idea, this is what you will find if you search for Donald Trump. There are many more entries, but I put the softer one because we want you to continue to think that The Output is a respectable site (it is not).
In fact, recently it was at the center of controversy because it went far beyond bad taste. However, The Urban Dictionary has become fashionable on Twitter and Instagram for the opposite.
People look up his name in The Urban Dictionary and share it on social media
The new viral trend is to look up your name in The Urban Dictionary, see what comes out and share it. You can already hope that the thing has a joke and surely heavy, but the opposite is happening.
Instead of starting with name calling, the definitions of the names are usually very good vibes and say quite nice things. As an example, this is what happens when I search for my name and I could not agree more on what it says (and on the number of positive votes it has after I press the button).
And this is what happens if I look for my boss.
In that I don’t agree so much and I can’t believe I have more votes positive than me, but hey.
The curiosity is that that rise in self-esteem that we all need comes from those who least expect it. The Urban Dictionary has always been a bit sketchy, that clever cousin of 4chan and the like, somewhat distant, true, but you see the resemblance to him.
However, a lot of users have long been making it a better site with those naming definitions. Of course, we already tell you that not all of them are going to be positive, but the vast majority will and surely they will make you half a smile.
No comments:
Post a Comment