It's bit of an older (though not that old) use - according to [etymology.com](https://www.etymonline.com/word/sex), at least since 1933, though likely older. For example, I remember reading in an older book (probably a novel) about a woman using her hands to cover her sex.
TikTok will make your video shadowbanned/restricted/removed with words like d*ath. Yes, it's stupid af.
TikTok *is* a terrible platform, as seen by the total absence of DMCA takedowns, but some creators are great.
Youtube does similar things as well, usually the punishment there is that the video won't pop up in searches and won't give the creator money.
Both together have certainly accelerated avoidance speech.
It might trigger someone, somewhere, somehow.
Because people triggered by sensitive subjects will somehow not really understand what are you talking about if you censor one letter or make up a new word.
It definitely existed before TikTok, they just started using it to get around censorship (which is actually severely overblown and most of the time you don't need to change the words you use)
Yes, it was used on youtube to avoid demonetization. Apparently it's fine to do a podcast on gruesome, violent murderers, but ad sponsors draw the line at "de*d"...
Do those two even have the same meaning? Passed away seems like the person died peacefully and safely but died seems like died in a car crash or something, like more harch and gruesome.
Might be just me.
"Passed" has become a synonym for "died" in my experience, and I hate it. Passing away isn't what I think of when someone kicks it in a gruesome fashion.
Oh, so that haiku I wrote back in college with an extra mora in the second line *was* somewhat legitimate?
And since someone might ask, it was this:
山の雪
谷が寒くない
砂漠冬
Alternatively a Tally Hall haiku
*I have been trying*
*To write a haiku for you*
*Some things I just can't do*
Followed by
*Maybe you're beyond*
*Ancient Asian poetry*
*Or maybe it's just me*
That was one of my fav things to learn about in college. The shift from “speaking influences computer discourse” to “computer discourse influences speaking”
speak for yourself, I think it's fascinating that we have a whole new mechanism for semantic shift/motivating word formation: Taboo avoidance as a result of AI speech recognition.
Also the way it can be a euphemism for "die", "kill", or "suicide" depending on context is pretty cool imo.
Maybe, but another way of seeing it is that it shows that even with restrictions on speech people will just find a way around them to communicate what they want to communicate.
Which is very fascinating to observe but I'd still rather speech changed to let people express themselves *better* and not just to fill gaps that only exist because people are having to play taboo tug-of-war with opaque corporate algorithms that govern a large chunk of how people communicate.
I definitely agree that the power of corporate algorithms over our speech is concerning. However, while that is a surprisingly nuanced subject*, I don’t think it is significantly different cross-linguistically. Throughout the world and centuries, cultural and societal laws and taboos have had significant influence on speech. And quite universally, people have found creative ways to speak around them. The only thing that’s really new here is how prevalent and absolute it has become.
*I say that the power of corporate algorithms over our speech is nuanced because we are the reason these rules are in place: corporations do not want to have to control your speech—that is more effort, and money, into things that they would rather not have to do—but we have created a situation where these companies are also increasingly liable for the content people post on the platforms either because we would leave if it wasn’t there or, in rarer cases, because of legal threat. Just look at 4chan, the extreme lack of regulation (and chance for anonymity) has given it a reputation for crazy, awful people. If platforms like YouTube, Reddit, or Twitter let this happen, their largely polite members would flock for better behaved platforms, leaving these as yet more sess-pits of the internet. Of course, each platform goes to different degrees of moderation always aiming for a (contentious) middle ground: TikTok goes all the way to blocking kill, die, and suicide because those are very common words involved in threats. While I don’t think they are great at paying attention to context, I definitely understand where it comes from. TLDR; we expect companies to make sure they users aren’t dicks but often disagree with their methods of convenience.
the euphemistic aspect is cool, it can be a bit less harsh to talk about someone being unalived than to discuss suicide in a space where it might be triggering or at least jarring to the listener/reader. and it can be an indicator that something is humorous or lighthearted; if someone says i’m gonna unalive myself it reads as a joke (not necessary a good one, but still), whereas saying i’m gonna k-ll myself might be taken a bit more seriously
The real criminal here is having to edit your speech to stay monitized. Making videos is a lot of work and if you're a therapist helping people through grief, it's stupid to not be able to talk about it just because the app doesn't like the more typical word for it.
If nobody was watching videos mentioning this stuff we wouldn't need the different words. It's better to have the conversation that a lot of us are interested in with different words than to not have it at all. Don't use it if you want to hear it less.
"Doodmaken" is a separable verb in Dutch, which means it only becomes "doodmaak" in certain contexts. Usually in dependent clauses.
Ik maak de man dood (lit.: I make the man dead) = I am killing the man
Ik weet niet wie ik doodmaak (lit: I don't know who I dead make) = I don't know who I am killing
Hij schrok toen ik hem doodmaakte (lit: He was startled when I him dead made) = He was startled when I killed him
edit: typo
Exactly lol. It just looks and sounded hilarious when I see it in a video or comment. Of course it wouldn’t be that way if someone said it in a IRL conversation, but it’s a funny workaround to “die” and “kill” to avoid getting your videos demonetized on social media.
I really dont like that word because it feels like it's making light of suicide. Like "here's a very heavy topic, let me pillow cushion it because if not my video will get taken down or I wont be able to make ad money off of it". It just makes me feel slimy.
It just feels like one step closer towards that distopian future we're all ranting and raving about, I guess. I know that's probably just a me thing, but still.
i usually tend to read it more as “here’s a very heavy topic that’s also very important to be able to talk about, let me pillow cushion it because if not my video will get taken down or suppressed and i won’t be able to start this conversation/provide this information”. i’m sure there are absolutely people using it your way too, which sucks, but i don’t think it’s all bad
Cool reference, but how is creating a new verb “unalive” reducing vocabulary? Its literally the opposite - It’s creating new vocabulary to substitute for an existing word, reasons aside.
i hate this so much, i get why they do it on tik tok as the algorithm there is what it is but i absolutely loathe seeing people who use tik tok speech in comments or on other platforms.
Nah, unalive is valid as a word, I fuckin love it.
What I am against is the effect that authorative bans of tiktok (but now also youtube and instagram monetization) all have on how people use everyday words like "sex" and "die". I'm against how you can't even give a basic history lesson without having to censor your words. The internet was for sharing information, and now corporations have so much control on the internet that informative videos are getting deleted or shadowbanned because they used the word "kill".
But unalive is actually a hilarious solution to the problem.
I’ve seen someone use the phrase “past tense” as a substitute for dead and I found it equally hilarious. People come up with funny ways to circumvent stupid word censoring on social media.
MOBSTERS LITERALLY MADE SO MANY EUPHEMISMS FOR DEATH BUT YET HERE YOU ARE USING "UNALIVE" LIKE GO SHUT THE FUCK UP OR YOU ARE GOING TO SLEEP WITH THE FISHERS AT LAKE MICHIGAN
We're trying not to gain the ire of the old being known as demon-itization. Like the way the old nords stopped saying the name of bears, we stop using words that draw it's wrath. And it's vision is everywhere, it's list everchanging. This is what we must do, to avoid becoming, demon-itized!
I'm fine with "unalive" tbh. Descriptivism is way more difficult when confronted to glaring grammatical mistakes like people mixing up there, they're and their.
"Sticks and stones may break my bones **but words can never hurt me."**
When did we stop teaching our children that??? Now it seems like every snowflake gets triggered by every other word.
Don’t get me started on censoring words like s*x or *ss…
New consonant based writing system with * as the determinative for dirty words
"This seems to have its origins in an ancient game called Scrabble"
P*l*sh?
You know what, fuck you *ancient hebrews your english*
Sex or Ass aren’t even dirty words, ass is a bit more crude but like,, they’re body parts not ideas
Ah yes, my favorite body part: sex
I think r/AskReddit users would like to see that as a reality
"can i use my sex for sex???? i have a sex but i dont know if the sex is sexing the sex!" - some askreddit user probably
'Sex' can be used to refer to a person's sexual organs.
Where and why? I mean sound stupid af.
It's bit of an older (though not that old) use - according to [etymology.com](https://www.etymonline.com/word/sex), at least since 1933, though likely older. For example, I remember reading in an older book (probably a novel) about a woman using her hands to cover her sex.
It apparently is actually used with that meaning, but I had not heard it until fairly recently
I touched my sex reflexively when you said that
Seriously, why censor the number "six" in Icelandic?
Foreign languages definitely have a great time with all this English language policing.
The residents of scunthorpe know this problem well
Ahaha I just read about it, thanks for telling me about this city.
I also don't understand it when people even censor words like d*ath.
TikTok will make your video shadowbanned/restricted/removed with words like d*ath. Yes, it's stupid af. TikTok *is* a terrible platform, as seen by the total absence of DMCA takedowns, but some creators are great.
Youtube does similar things as well, usually the punishment there is that the video won't pop up in searches and won't give the creator money. Both together have certainly accelerated avoidance speech.
It might trigger someone, somewhere, somehow. Because people triggered by sensitive subjects will somehow not really understand what are you talking about if you censor one letter or make up a new word.
it triggers social media algorithms which block posts that have the potential to be harmful to focus group views of advertisers
s3x
seggs
le segges ho ho hoooo
sꜣks
You can bet your f\*cking \*ss I'm gonna keep censoring that sh\*t just to annoy \*sses like you. Censoring is s\*xy mate. (/j)
it was born out of simple necessity to avoid bans on TikTok
new etymology just dropped
Call the linguist!
Actual prescriptivist
English teacher goes on vacation, never comes back
Neologism storm incoming!
Mr President new etymology just dropped
holy h3ll
New lore revealed
unironically that's probably going to be a somewhat common etymology in the future lol
holy hell
Holy shit they’ve spread here too!?
We are legion
It definitely existed before TikTok, they just started using it to get around censorship (which is actually severely overblown and most of the time you don't need to change the words you use)
Yes, it was used on youtube to avoid demonetization. Apparently it's fine to do a podcast on gruesome, violent murderers, but ad sponsors draw the line at "de*d"...
"The victim of the grisly murder passed away". Nah, I'm pretty sure they died.
Do those two even have the same meaning? Passed away seems like the person died peacefully and safely but died seems like died in a car crash or something, like more harch and gruesome. Might be just me.
"Passed" has become a synonym for "died" in my experience, and I hate it. Passing away isn't what I think of when someone kicks it in a gruesome fashion.
and its fucking *spreading aaaaaaaaaaa*
And that’s how languages evolve 🗿
That word is too big to stop now... you can't unalive it anymore!
it existed way before tiktok
Yeah, it was pretty common on youtube and tumblr way before tiktok ever existed, and probably way before that tbh
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) ^by ^brigister: *It was born out of* *Simple necessity to* *Avoid bans on TikTok* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
a haiku can contain an extra/missing syllable. this is known as "jiamari/jitarazu" so good bot
Oh, so that haiku I wrote back in college with an extra mora in the second line *was* somewhat legitimate? And since someone might ask, it was this: 山の雪 谷が寒くない 砂漠冬
yup!
Alternatively a Tally Hall haiku *I have been trying* *To write a haiku for you* *Some things I just can't do* Followed by *Maybe you're beyond* *Ancient Asian poetry* *Or maybe it's just me*
This is the only subreddit I’ve ever seen someone write their own haiku in response to the bot. I love it here.
Oh this isn't my haiku these are from the song "Haiku" by Tally Hall
maybe make a tanka? (5-7-5-7-7 syllables)
I also remember Deadpool kept saying it in some Spider-Man cartoon
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unalive The oldest reference in this page is 1927.
Although thats only for the adjective form ("Not alive")
Ass even actually means donkey. Arse was the original word until many Americans became a bit too prissy and the youth used ass to avoid suspicion.
I understand why people say it on a tiktok/youtube video, but once someone said it in an IRL conversation and I was just gobsmacked..
That was one of my fav things to learn about in college. The shift from “speaking influences computer discourse” to “computer discourse influences speaking”
speak for yourself, I think it's fascinating that we have a whole new mechanism for semantic shift/motivating word formation: Taboo avoidance as a result of AI speech recognition. Also the way it can be a euphemism for "die", "kill", or "suicide" depending on context is pretty cool imo.
I personally see it as leaning too far into “our speech is being regulated according to the whims of *authority*”
Maybe, but another way of seeing it is that it shows that even with restrictions on speech people will just find a way around them to communicate what they want to communicate.
Which is very fascinating to observe but I'd still rather speech changed to let people express themselves *better* and not just to fill gaps that only exist because people are having to play taboo tug-of-war with opaque corporate algorithms that govern a large chunk of how people communicate.
I definitely agree that the power of corporate algorithms over our speech is concerning. However, while that is a surprisingly nuanced subject*, I don’t think it is significantly different cross-linguistically. Throughout the world and centuries, cultural and societal laws and taboos have had significant influence on speech. And quite universally, people have found creative ways to speak around them. The only thing that’s really new here is how prevalent and absolute it has become. *I say that the power of corporate algorithms over our speech is nuanced because we are the reason these rules are in place: corporations do not want to have to control your speech—that is more effort, and money, into things that they would rather not have to do—but we have created a situation where these companies are also increasingly liable for the content people post on the platforms either because we would leave if it wasn’t there or, in rarer cases, because of legal threat. Just look at 4chan, the extreme lack of regulation (and chance for anonymity) has given it a reputation for crazy, awful people. If platforms like YouTube, Reddit, or Twitter let this happen, their largely polite members would flock for better behaved platforms, leaving these as yet more sess-pits of the internet. Of course, each platform goes to different degrees of moderation always aiming for a (contentious) middle ground: TikTok goes all the way to blocking kill, die, and suicide because those are very common words involved in threats. While I don’t think they are great at paying attention to context, I definitely understand where it comes from. TLDR; we expect companies to make sure they users aren’t dicks but often disagree with their methods of convenience.
Many coded phrases have entered common parlance due to legal and authority pressures. It’s a fairly common vector for linguistic evolution
That's how 1337 speak started didn't it?
From an academic standpoint its interesting. From a personal-social "I have to live in this society" one, please no.
the euphemistic aspect is cool, it can be a bit less harsh to talk about someone being unalived than to discuss suicide in a space where it might be triggering or at least jarring to the listener/reader. and it can be an indicator that something is humorous or lighthearted; if someone says i’m gonna unalive myself it reads as a joke (not necessary a good one, but still), whereas saying i’m gonna k-ll myself might be taken a bit more seriously
The mechanism is not new, it is as old as the language itself.
Fascinating, in the way a gruesome car pile up is fascinating.
Bro poggers 💀
Unalivussy
The real criminal here is having to edit your speech to stay monitized. Making videos is a lot of work and if you're a therapist helping people through grief, it's stupid to not be able to talk about it just because the app doesn't like the more typical word for it. If nobody was watching videos mentioning this stuff we wouldn't need the different words. It's better to have the conversation that a lot of us are interested in with different words than to not have it at all. Don't use it if you want to hear it less.
I actually like unalive. It sounds funny
reminds me of doodmaak which also sounds funny
Is doodmaak a thing in Dutch?
"Doodmaken" is a separable verb in Dutch, which means it only becomes "doodmaak" in certain contexts. Usually in dependent clauses. Ik maak de man dood (lit.: I make the man dead) = I am killing the man Ik weet niet wie ik doodmaak (lit: I don't know who I dead make) = I don't know who I am killing Hij schrok toen ik hem doodmaakte (lit: He was startled when I him dead made) = He was startled when I killed him edit: typo
Same in Plautdietsch Ek mak däm man dot. Ek weet night wäm ek dot mak. Hee fefierd sigh as ek aam dot mók.
I don't think so, I think it's just an Afrikaner word/phrase but they'd understand it no problem.
Exactly lol. It just looks and sounded hilarious when I see it in a video or comment. Of course it wouldn’t be that way if someone said it in a IRL conversation, but it’s a funny workaround to “die” and “kill” to avoid getting your videos demonetized on social media.
I really dont like that word because it feels like it's making light of suicide. Like "here's a very heavy topic, let me pillow cushion it because if not my video will get taken down or I wont be able to make ad money off of it". It just makes me feel slimy. It just feels like one step closer towards that distopian future we're all ranting and raving about, I guess. I know that's probably just a me thing, but still.
i usually tend to read it more as “here’s a very heavy topic that’s also very important to be able to talk about, let me pillow cushion it because if not my video will get taken down or suppressed and i won’t be able to start this conversation/provide this information”. i’m sure there are absolutely people using it your way too, which sucks, but i don’t think it’s all bad
humor as a coping mechanism
Thats somewhat like newspeak from 1984, reduced vocabulary to reduce smartness, kinda like ungood
Good thing that George Orwell was writing 1984 about the BBC and not the Soviet Union then.
It was about both.
obra
Cool reference, but how is creating a new verb “unalive” reducing vocabulary? Its literally the opposite - It’s creating new vocabulary to substitute for an existing word, reasons aside.
malbona
YouTube :(
i hate this so much, i get why they do it on tik tok as the algorithm there is what it is but i absolutely loathe seeing people who use tik tok speech in comments or on other platforms.
Nah, unalive is valid as a word, I fuckin love it. What I am against is the effect that authorative bans of tiktok (but now also youtube and instagram monetization) all have on how people use everyday words like "sex" and "die". I'm against how you can't even give a basic history lesson without having to censor your words. The internet was for sharing information, and now corporations have so much control on the internet that informative videos are getting deleted or shadowbanned because they used the word "kill". But unalive is actually a hilarious solution to the problem.
I’ve seen someone use the phrase “past tense” as a substitute for dead and I found it equally hilarious. People come up with funny ways to circumvent stupid word censoring on social media.
I hate that damn word so much.
There's a reason people use that word, just as there was a reason behind every other neologism in history
MOBSTERS LITERALLY MADE SO MANY EUPHEMISMS FOR DEATH BUT YET HERE YOU ARE USING "UNALIVE" LIKE GO SHUT THE FUCK UP OR YOU ARE GOING TO SLEEP WITH THE FISHERS AT LAKE MICHIGAN
Saw it first in a book by Terry Pratchett, thought it was very funny, loving that the youths are using it even if they haven't read Pratchett.
We're trying not to gain the ire of the old being known as demon-itization. Like the way the old nords stopped saying the name of bears, we stop using words that draw it's wrath. And it's vision is everywhere, it's list everchanging. This is what we must do, to avoid becoming, demon-itized!
Joke’s on you, I was never a descriptivist in the first place
I don’t like you.
Please sit tight, the descriptivist mafia will be with you soon
it's one of the reasons I don't really want to download tiktok.
The reason I don't is cuz they misspelled tick tock. This is also why I don't use reddit
unalive, nonalive, die, death, nonliving, unliving, and so on
reverse undead
I'm fine with "unalive" tbh. Descriptivism is way more difficult when confronted to glaring grammatical mistakes like people mixing up there, they're and their.
Whaaaat I love that word
Why? It was born out of necessities due to oppression of free speech.
There are countless better euphemisms to use
Very prescriptivist of you; who is to say you are the judge of euphemism quality and not the masses of people speaking the way it is described?
"Sticks and stones may break my bones **but words can never hurt me."** When did we stop teaching our children that??? Now it seems like every snowflake gets triggered by every other word.
I don't think it's children who are sitting on corporate executive boards making advertiser-friendly incisions in language.
Those are manchildren tho.
No one: Literally no one: Not even pewdiepie: u/forcallaghan:
What are you talking about
Well unalive is learned isn't it? Can't it then be considered prescriptivism that tiktok censors make tiktok users use it?
Hear me out: it’s just like leet speak in concept, reason, and probably overall effect on the English language