The word 'demure' completely flipped meaning in 8 months

I remember last January 'demure' was just a bookish word for shy girls in Victorian novels. Now every second TikTok is someone calling their iced coffee or their cat demure, and it means like effortlessly classy and mindful. It got picked up by that one creator in New York and just exploded past 200 million views by March. Has anyone else noticed how fast a word can go from dusty dictionary to daily slang these days?

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emery192mo ago

Wait, is this just how language works now, like words get reset every few months? It’s wild how fast it went from a dusty book to a whole vibe. I swear my grandma uses it wrong now too, which is the real sign it’s over. The internet basically grabs one word, squeezes all the meaning out of it, and drops it when it’s dry. Feels like we’re speedrunning dictionary updates at this point.

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brian_rivera592mo ago

Ha, @emery19 nailed it. My cousin says “slay” to her dog now and I just nod.

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