The word preppy has undergone a considerable evolution since Boomers first used it to describe attire that reflects a conservative, polished, East-coast prep school look. For middle-schoolers today, preppy connotes an entirely different aesthetic: girly clothing that’s frilly, often Barbie-pink or decorated with animal prints. In his new book, Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language (Bookshop|Amazon) linguist Adam Aleksic shows the role social media algorithms played in the development of an entirely new sense of the word. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “The Meaning Shift of “Preppy””
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
When you hear or see the word preppy today, it may not mean what you think.
Traditionally, the word preppy has been associated with exclusive prep school attire, like those polo shirts and khaki pants and cable knit sweaters and blazers and pearls. You know, that conservative, polished, East Coast prep school look.
But today, among young teenagers, the word preppy has taken on a very different meaning. For them, preppy describes clothing that’s very girly and bright colors with lots of ruffles and fabrics that feature smiley faces and animal prints and sparkly stars. And a lot of that clothing is bright pink.
Think about all that neon pink we saw when the Barbie movie came out a couple of years ago. It’s that kind of bright pink. And if you don’t believe me, just ask any middle schooler.
So what’s going on? Well, linguist Adam Alexick has a very interesting argument about this change in the meaning of the word preppy. He says it’s the direct result of social media algorithms that are pushing content to consumers.
And he notes that the word preppy in the old sense was long used in the catalogs of upscale retailers like Brooks Brothers and Ralph Lauren. But then in recent years, the word was picked up by more youth-oriented retailers, and their young customers in turn picked up this positive word suggesting something fashionable and desirable.
And they started applying the word preppy to the clothes they admire and like to wear, that is, clothes that are worn by the popular girls. Now, these girls were posting TikTok videos of themselves in their own outfits of choice, which happened to be bright pink and girly. And they started labeling their videos with that positive hashtag preppy.
And savvy business owners picked up on the girls’ usage and started labeling their own social media with things like hashtag preppy, simply because it was a trendy word that appealed to that demographic. And to that demographic, they were able to sell more of this sparkly pink girly clothing.
So that’s just one example of how social media algorithms are influencing the way we speak and write. The algorithm rewards what’s popular, and then an old word gets repackaged for clicks. And Alexic writes about that dynamic and much more in a new book called Algo Speak, How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language.
And so, Grant, that’s just one example. There’s so much more in this book. But I found this business about preppy really interesting.
Yeah, it’s different. Like you said, when I was in school decades ago, preppy definitely was like popped collars on polos and boat shoes and khakis. Very different.
And I’m also hearing that I need to be wearing more bright pink. Is that what you’re saying? I mean, it could work for me. I don’t know. These young women have a lot of taste and style that I don’t have.
Well, you know, we often talk about similarities between language and clothing. We do, yeah. You know, I don’t think I’m going to be using preppy to mean pink, and I’m not going to be wearing pink like that either.
We will link to this book, Algo Speak, on our website at waywordradio.org. And, hey, we’d love to hear your latest slang and new language, no matter where you learned it. Call us or text us, toll-free, 877-929-9673. Or email words@waywordradio.org.
