Pretty interesting attempt. The idea of catching where a word pops out of the primordial psychosocial ooze and becomes a signifier is a compelling idea. Cant h

Pretty interesting attempt. The idea of catching where a word pops out of the primordial psychosocial ooze and becomes a signifier is a compelling idea. Cant help but feel that "Using Google searches for words’ definitions" is catching these things when Memaw is looking them up not the kids... The generation of slang that I have seen in life gets defined in practice. When something is google search mainstream it has ossified to some extent. I remember the first time I heard 'mansplain' and since i am an old dude (older even than 'elder millenials' which is a term from the article that I liked) - I am sure it was old when I heard it back in 2014 on twitter. At the time I got it in the context of Lucille Ball saying 'splain me' in the way that she did on her show... In the context I didn't need to do a google search - I just laughed my head off and found other examples on twitter and tumbler, reddit etc For me at the time this was new and very funny. I would see it grow into other variants 'x-splaining',etc. Occasionally I use it in speech, sometimes in an ironic way when I am tasked with explaining something to a group. I guess the point is that this is really intersting but i more phenomenology than ontology. I think peak google searches are when this has reified into something - first step into making it into the OED. When it is peak google the word would get . disgusted eyeroll from your typical teenager. Anecdotally I heard 'triggered' in a google social media (what was that called again) discussion and mistakenly thought it was a joke. I got all kinds of blocks and hate and learned that this was something that had actual currency in certain circles and I should be aware of this in future conversations... We coin these things all the time - most of them become private jokes, some take off and become viral. Most dry up and blow away. Some make it to a headline or a list of "10 words to knwo when you check your teens chats..." But the actual origin is probably in some subredit , twitter exchange, etc. These things dont pop up with definitions, and what is more interesting are the connotations - the way something like 'deplorable' got whipped around social media or a while and became a badge in opposition to 'sjw'. That would be really interesting research - show clouds of meaning where these things bounce around and get the secondary meanings and associations for the brief flaring up before they become dank...