Kids these days, with their TikTok videos and secret languages … it can be hard to keep up when the internet is moving at a positively frenetic pace. As one might say, “if you know, you know,” which is incidentally the subject of the latest internet slang: IYKYK.
If you know you know meaning, otherwise known as IYKYK
The phrase, and by proxy, the abbreviation, is nothing new. The top Urban Dictionary entry for iykyk dates back to December 2016, which was at the time defined as: “If You Know You Know. Last night’s party was crazy #iykyk.” Essentially, the phrase boils down to an inside joke or choice piece of information that only select individuals might be privy to.
Other definitions describe it as a “secret melodramatic girl language” used to provoke drama or stir the proverbial pot—that also has the potential to create “copious amounts of fomo.” Similar phrases, according to #Hashtag Dictionary, include “Do you feel me?” “Are we on the same page?” and “Either you get it, or you don’t.”
IYKYK memes
At any rate, anyone who has glanced at the internet recently has probably noticed that iykyk is currently all over the place. On Twitter, people are using the term to riff about anything from college extracurriculars and prom being canceled to Snapchat memories.
Others are sharing an odd nostalgia for the video chat and messaging app ooVoo, in times of quarantine … iykyk indeed!
Others used the term to remember the infamous Alabama leprechaun on St. Patrick’s Day and to roast Lizzie McGuire’s sidekick “Gordo.”
The more you know—if you know, you know—you know?
READ MORE:
- ‘Sco Pa Tu Manaa’ is all over Twitter–here’s what it means
- ‘Bomboclaat’ is the new ‘sco pa tu manaa’
- Here’s what ‘Sksksk’ means
