- This video is sponsored by SurfShark VPN
- Vikings gave you spam mail, Tumblr is nothing but horse doo doo and somehow this turned into this.
Hey you! My name is Thomas TomSka Ridgewell and this is a video about words! Don't you dare
click off don't you dare. I think we can all agree that videos are more interesting when the person
making them is actually interested in the things they are making the video about and you know what?
You know what? I'm interested in etymology the origin of words and I swear to god if you click
off this video I'll find you. I will find you and hurt you in ways you didn't know possible.
This is gonna be interesting I promise. I have scoured the internet for internet words that we
all know and use that came from places I really didn't expect and I want to impart that knowledge
upon you so you can also be an annoying trivia spewing goblin. You are gonna be hanging out
with your friends and they are all going to be like ah man I wonder where the word meme
came from and you'll be like I know where the word meme came from and then they won't want
to hang out with you anymore and then you'll be alone and you'll make YouTube videos... Oh...
- One thing I'm going to say before I start this video though is that I'm not Tom Scott,
I'm not Jay Foreman, I'm not third name. Whilst I have done my research and looked into things
I'm not that much of an academic nor do I have that much integrity so there is a decent chance
some of these facts aren't entirely accurate and if you feel like pointing any of that out...
Don't! Let's start you off somewhere simple, Spam! Spam emails. Spamming something. The act
of just spewing gibberish. Unwanted noise. Where does it come from? What do you think? Wha- Answer
me! What's that? The meat product created in 1937? Wrong! Die! The journey really kicks
off in 1970 with a Monty Python sketch wherein someone is trying to order food from a cafe but
all the meals on the menu contain spam and they don't want spam and you might be thinking okay
so it's like a thing people don't want? Like junk mail? That's not it. That is in no way
it. It's because in the sketch there are some Vikings that just start singing the word spam.
- Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam...
- We then jump ahead to the 80s and 90s on the earliest internet chatrooms. Internet chatrooms
if you're younger than old are basically the places where people would congregate and chat
on the internet before social media before discord when you actually had to find your
little freaky group of goblins and form some sense of a community and it became a bit of a meme, one
of the, if not the earliest internet memes to just fill the chat with the word spam. In the spirit of
the Monty Python sketch just absolutely dump that word in there until nothing else was visible. Just
straight up break the damn chatroom. And now you get spam mail, you spam things. Words and shit!
- And now a word from our sponsor!
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-
Here's a light one, the word meme, we use it every day. We all strive
to make them but where does it come from? Well memetics and the study of them has been
a thing in science for a long old time over a 100 years basically Greek word mimema mimema mimema.
I don't know how to pronounce it but basically, it just means things that are imitated. But it wasn't
until 1976 when evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins said that words long... I don't know how
to say it either! I'm gonna make it short... Like the word gene! deal with it. And now we have the
word meme and it basically just means something that is imitated within culture when people do
a thing a lot. A meme! And Richard Dawkins is a meme. He made the meme and became the meme.
I don't want to look up anything else about him. I feel like he might be mean... Meme!
- Alright we've done memes now let's do weebs what the fuck is a weeb I've got Japanese on my
shirt I'm a weeb you've watched a Japanese anime you're a fucking weeb what does it mean?
where does it come from? I'm going to tell you because that's what this video is. So the word
weeb is basically used to describe anyone who is into Japanese culture Japanese media
at pretty much any degree. From obsessive Otaku levels down to just I've watched an
anime once. It's a word that gets thrown around a lot what you may know already is that it is a
shortened version of the word weeaboo but that doesn't help us get anywhere so where
does the word weeaboo come from? Well, don't worry I'm going to clear it all up right now
by showing you its origin in this 2005 Perry Bible Fellowship comic.
- If we waste anymore time on "weeaboo" we'll be bankrupt by the end of the month!
- Did someone just say "weeaboo?"
- Cause I think I just heard someone say "weeaboo"
- Weeaboo Weeaboo Weeaboo!
- Didn't that clear everything up? It didn't?! What do you fucking want from me? Okay so you're
probably thinking alright the comic used the word weeaboo but what inspired the comic? What comes
before the comic. Nothing! Absolutely nothing. That is the beginning of the word weeaboo.
Fuck. However! In the 18th century, yes we are going back to the 18th century,
the term Japanaphile becomes a thing somehow who is like well into Japan and shit because they
found it like hey what's that over there? Aww Japan? Big fan of that. I'm a Jafan!
- So the term Japanaphile exists within the culture for a couple of hundred years
bringing us to the turn of the millennium when suddenly kids start saying wapanese which could
mean wannabee Japanese or white Japanese. A weeb if you will, but not yet! We are not there yet!
- So around 2004-2005 on the 4Chan message boards, 4Chan by the way if you don't know
what it is keep it that way you live in such blissful ignorance and I am truly jealous of you,
but on these boards the term wapanese and being called wapanese is so common so widespread
so annoying to its userbase that the mods decide alright we got to do away with this
word so finally along comes this Perry Bible Fellowship comic featuring the word weeaboo
and they go do you know what will be fucking funny? Lets just make it so that every time
someone says wapanese it just autocorrects to the word weeaboo for just no reason and you
know what it worked perfectly because people were just so annoyed that they stopped saying
wapanese or weeaboo and it died out completely just kidding obviously that didn't happen people
just adopted the word weeaboo shifted its meaning badabing badaboom you've got weebs. Words. Weerbs!
- What's an easy one? Erm cookies! You go on a website it says do you accept cookies? Do you? I
do. I fucking love cookies. What do you visualize when you think of a cookie? You probably think of
a chocolate chip cookie because let's be honest they are the best cookies but that's not where the
word comes from it comes from a fortune cookie. Because a fortune cookie is a little packet that
has information inside and that's what the cookie on the internet is. It's like a little packet
with a little bit of data inside and then a fortune cookie. That's where it comes from. Not
chocolate chip cookie. So fix your visualization. I feel like I made the world a worse place.
- Dashboards! Most sites. Most apps we know have a dashboard. Basically the first thing that
pops up with information in front of you it's called a dashboard. So like you know on Tumblr
the front page of Tumblr is called a dashboard. It's a dashboard. Cars have dashboards. Where
it displays the information. Is that the origin of the term? No! You fucking idiot. Why would
I be talking about it if that was the origin of the term. The term is far more interesting than
that. So we got back way way way into the past to horse and cart. You know what happens when you've
got a little cart and you've got a little horse walking in front of you? Horse be
kicking up poopy. Kicks up mud. Kicks up the poop from its self or other horses.
It dashes. When it dashes it flicks things into you. Poopy in your face!
So you know what they eventually put between them and the poopy that the horse was kicking up? A
board. A board that protected them from the things that were flicked up as the horse dashed. A dash
board. There you go. That's a word. Now you know where that's from. And whilst once upon a time
a dashboard existed to protect us from the shit being thrown at our face? Now it does the exact
opposite! The dashboard throws the shit directly at your face! It has come full circle baby!
- Trolling! To troll. A troll. Where does this term come from? Elliot go!
- The monster?
- Wrong! You moron! You think it's based on the fantasy creature? The troll whose got a little
club and he ugly? You think the act of trolling is based off the fucking fantasy little cretin?
You really think that? You stupid fuck! It's a fishing term! Its when you throw out a line
with a bait on it and you reel it in slowly you troll the water you're trolling you're
looking to get a bite you're looking to get a little fish come up and have a little nibble
that's where it comes from you're trolling you're throwing out bait and you're trying
to get a reaction you're trying to get someone to take a bite. That's wh- What are you stupid?!
- We see people stanning things all the time.
You go on Twitter and someone is like haha stan luna I think I don't know fucking Koreaboos
- Where does that come from? Stalker fan? Wrong! Fake out! This one doesn't have an
interesting story. It just comes from the song Stan by Eminem where he get stalked by a fan
called Stan. Why is he called Stan? Probably because it just rhymes with fan. That's it.
- How best to show this next word... Okay! I'm
going to show you a video of some really cute kittens
-
Haha! Got you! I didn't show you kittens I showed you Rick Astley's song I'm Never
Going To Give You Up. You just got Rickrolled bitch! We've all been Rickrolled you click a link
and you think you're gonna get one thing, but you don't you get Rick Astley where does the term
come from? Is it like you roll the dice? And you think you're gonna get one thing but you instead
you get Rick Astley? Like a crit fail in D&D? Is that where it comes from? A Rick roll? No! No it
isn't! Get a fucking grip! But don't worry I'm going to explain it all to you because
you see to get the term Rickroll you start with egg. There you go what more do you want? It's
egg. Rickroll. So to explain this we are going to have to once again go all the way back to 4Chan
I'm so sorry for bringing you here. Now whilst I guess the reasoning from changing wapanese
to weeaboo to cut down on a word that was annoying the userbase this one not so much. So basically
in 2006 the moderator of 4Chan Moot decided that whenever someone typed the word egg it would just
say the word duck. If you're gonna do that joke then at least have it be like chicken because
you type in the word egg and you get chicken like which came first chicken or egg that would have
made sense nope not on 4Chan so if someone were to type eggroll they would accidentally type the
word duckroll and then it became a fairly common practical joke to post a link to something and
when someone clicked that link they would be rewarded with not what they thought they were
getting but with duckroll hey you want to see some funny kittens? fuck you duck roll. You see
where this is going? And then in 2007 one user posted what they promised was the link to the
Grand Theft Auto 4 trailer and instead when people clicked on it they were rewarded with you guessed
it duckroll wrong Rickroll! It's Rick Astley time! That's it that is where it came from on
duckroll which came from eggroll which came from egg. Egg Rick Astley I told you it made sense!
- Alright here is a fun one an uncomplicated one an almost feel good story
computer bug your computer isn't working very well you just say it's got a bug your video game
is glitching you say it is buggy where does that come from well what if I told you that
in 1946 one of the computering pioneers Grace Hopper was tinkering with an early computer
and it stopped working and they were like why is it not working she cracked the damn thing open
what did she find inside? a moth a bug and they're like hey whenever a computer break we
are going to say it has got a computer bug named after this moth! What a wonderful story what an
uncomplicated just little piece of joy that just brings me- oh hold on my phone is ringing...
- Hey Tom sorry my spider-sense for when someone was about to say something completely wrong about
computers and language at the same time went off. Grace Hopper did not invent the word bug
she just found an actual bug she already knew the word. It went back ages she was
just making a joke. Like you can actually go see the actual bug it is in the Smithsonian
- Shut up! Shut up Tom Scott! You big fucking nerd!
I hate you! I hate you so much I hope you crash!
- Yeah no worries I hate myself too
- I'm sorry I lied to you I just wanted to share a story that was cute,
uncomplicated it wasn't hurting anyone it was a nice endearing story so what if
the term bug has been around for a really long time it was nice it was fun and pure.
- Alright lets talk about the word that inspired me to make this video
because the journey this word took to get to where it is now is just
is just weird and ridiculous and it takes just so many steps and that word is
poggers what is the word poggers? how to you have a word that just expresses a face an emotion and
how does it get there from a pile of assembled fruits? How does that happen? Well lets jump
back in time a 100 or so years ago and pop over to Hawaii where this story for some reason begins
shrouded in somewhat of a mystery. You've got milk right? You know milk? It's a yummy! And
you take a milk cap and you stack it with other milk caps and then you throw a milk cap at it
to knock the milk caps over. We've all done it! We haven't? Because that sounds fucking stupid.
Well apparently that what people were doing a 100 or so years ago in Hawaii. We will skip 50 years
and move to 1971 in Hawaii where Mary Soon takes a passion fruit, a orange and a Guava blends them
all together and makes a new drink and calls it Passion Fruit Orange Guava which isn't very
catchy so the name is immediately shortened to POG. It's Juice that makes you go mmm yummy
yummy. So inside the lids of these pog things are little caps little milk caps with pog written on
them and little colours and it becomes kind of a thing to just collect them and people are playing
the little milk cap game where they throw it down and that becomes just a huge fad in the 90s
- Pogs!
- I'll be honest with you I do not understand the appeal I've tried it
I can't I'm very bad at this game
- This is where I make history
- History of being shit
- So now we jump to the year 2010 where a streamer by the name of Ryan makes some silly faces. It has
nothing to do with pogs absolutely nothing. He just makes silly faces! I do that all the time!
The next year however that same streamer appears in a video titled pog championship
where in he plays pogs. Unrelated ultimately but still same guy did silly face appears in video
called pog championship these things get fused together and you get an emote called pogchamp.
And this is an emote that people will just sometimes use because it is a little funny
face the emote is called pogchamp. That's it right? Is that the whole story? Not really. In
2016 the game Overwatch comes out and features something called Play Of The Game which a lot
of users shorten to pog this association leads to an explosion in the use of the
pogchamp emote. Over the course of a few years people just start saying the word pog to evoke
the emotive expressiveness of this emote. They don't even need to use it they can just say pog.
A thing can be pog. And around 2019 the term escapes its little world of Twitch onto the
broader internet evoking once again whatever emotion this is supposed to convey. And as
words tend to do it grows and evolves it becomes an adjective or a noun or a verb things are pog
things can be pog things can be poggers and then in a twist of events that happen because of course
it fucking does. This guy starts saying a bunch of stuff about this thing and Twitch goes actually
you know what fuck you and fuck this and they just remove the emote the face is gone and after
a brief period of turbulence it is replace with this guy because sure why not. Just why not.
- So what starts with a bunch of children throwing milk caps on the ground a 100 years ago and
someone blending some fruits together 50 years ago somehow ends up with a fucking komodo dragon
and a word that basically means exciting or once again whatever emotion this is supposed to be.
Aren't words great? Don't you just love words? I genuinely love words! This shit is gibberish
everything coming out of my mouth is gibberish. What the fuck does the word gibberish mean?
I like etymology okay? I hope that yknow I was joking at the start of this video about this being
quite a dense and potentially boring thing but I hope genuinely you found it kind of interesting.
Because words are fun and silly and once again I probably got a bunch of things wrong in this video
please don't correct me because like Tom Scott you might get into a car accident.