I’ve seen a lot of people saying it lately and it’s seemingly out of nowhere. I’m particularly interested because almost 10 years ago a popular Korean LoL streamer popularized the phrase in the League community and it was used in precisely the same way. Until now, I never heard anybody else say it but it really piqued my curiosity when I started seeing it again!
Did it start in a particular region or community? Slang seems like it’s changing faster than ever and it’s absolutely insane haha.
We were using “real” and “for real” in the 1970s in the US.
As a youth, I have no idea.
i don’t know about “Real” but I’ve got another one that threw me off.
I’m middle aged, an avid skier, and I was sitting on the lift with a couple young dudes, probably 18-24, shooting shit about the awesome conditions. Now, I’ve heard “low-key”, and I know what it means and how to use it, but, I was relating a story about some gnarly line I had done that morning and they both kept parroting “hikee hikee”. It took me till several hours later sitting over a pint at the base to parse out they were saying “high-key” as a sort of qualifier for how dope my story was. Still haven’t heard it since but that was the moment I officially became an “old man”.
I assume it is a derivative of “for real” which has been in a heightened state of popularity for the last few years as part of Gen Z slang often mocked as “fr fr.” Granted, I work with high schoolers, and I’ve not heard just real. Then again, the slang they use is mostly the same as I used in my high school days with a few that catch me off guard like swerve or yassification that require a quick explanation.
