What is the best slang word of the 21st century?

The streets have spoken. This popular slang word is now going extinct — and Gen Z has never heard of it.

Aussie slang is constantly evolving; one minute you’re the height of cool if you describe something as “grouse”.

The next minute, a Gen Zer is looking you dead in the eyes and telling you they’ve never heard of that word before.

Gen Zers get a hard time for the slang they’ve introduced into Aussie life mainly because anyone older than them has no idea what they’re saying.

25 years ago, it was popular to use slang like sus which is short for suspicious or shook, which meant you were shocked.

To celebrate the launch of the new news.com.au app, we’re celebrating the people, places and events we’ll never forget from the first quarter of the 21st century by asking for Australia’s view. Our 25@25 series will finally put to bed the debates you’ve been having at the pub and around dinner tables for years – and some that are just too much fun not to include.

They’re now considered outdated, because, we’re living in a Gen Z world, and slang has changed.

Gen Zers have their own words for everything.

If you’ve done something well that means you’ve slayed. If you’re bragging, that’s flexing; if you do something unappealing – that means you’re being ick.

If you’re on a date and someone does something you don’t like, such as chewing with their mouth open, you’ll describe that as someone “giving you the ick”.

If you’re looking good, it’s called a “glow-up” in Gen Z language, and everything is either a vibe or not a vibe, and there’s no point arguing about it.

For instance a good house party would be described as a vibe, a bad house party with one guy playing guitar and insisting on doing a rendition of Wonderwall would be described as - not a vibe.

Not so long ago, it was Millennials in their skinny jeans who were the ones introducing words, and ‘grouse’ was a classic.

It meant that something was great or good, and it could be used to describe everything from an idea to how the surf is looking today.

Like the winner of a reality television singing competition in the mid-2000s – it has also disappeared from pop culture in recent years.

But less than 10 years ago, it was a common word used as frequently as Gen Zers use the word “slay” to describe their unremarkable everyday actions.

Everything’s a slay these days, but no one is using the word grouse anymore.

News.com.au hit the streets of the University of Technology to find out just how much slang has changed.

We had one hard-hitting question that truly stopped Gen Zers in bomber jackets in their tracks.

Have you ever of the word Grouse? Half of our time was spent explaining that we weren’t saying the word ‘grass’.

But what mission doesn’t have hiccups?

One trendy Gen Zer stopped eating some vegemite on toast at a university cafe and revealed she’d never heard of the word before.

“No,” she said.

She was not impressed by the word. Picture: News.com.au

She said she could maybe use it. Picture: News.com.au

Another student stopped filming a university assignment and scrunched up his face when confronted and asked if he’d heard of the word ‘grouse’ before.

“I don’t feel like I have,” he said politely.

And then he went in for the kill.

“It does sound old,” he remarked.

Similarly, a young woman said she hadn’t heard of the word either, but she certainly wasn’t impressed by it.

“It sounds like you’re referring to something gross,” she argued.

Would she be prepared to embrace the word? Bring it back, just as Gen Zers brought back curtain bangs.

“Definitely not,” she scoffed.

Well okay then.

Gen Zers have never heard of the word grouse. Picture: News.com.au

Everything’s a slay these days. Picture: News.com.au

A young guy relaxing in a deck chair and getting some sun in-between classes was also at a loss.

“No I’ve never heard of that word before,” he said.

Interestingly, though, he was prepared to adapt it and said he could even see himself using it. “This coffee is pretty grouse,” he said, trying it out.

In retrospect he may have been taking the piss.

Meanwhile, mature-age students and millennials who worked at the university were very familiar with the slang.

“It means great,” one said without even needing to think about it.

Had she used the word recently?

“Absolutely not,” she replied.

While another millennial woman said she knew what the word meant but she’d never hear a Gen Zer utter it in her lifetime.

No matter your age, take the rest of our 25@25 polls

Originally published as What is the best slang word of the 21st century?