The New Meaning of “Basic”

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, guys. This is Steve Tinsley from Dallas.

Hi, Steve. How you doing?

Hi, Steve.

Doing good, guys.

What’s up? What’s on your mind?

So, I’ve noticed my teenage kids using a very familiar word in a way that’s really strange to me.

So, a few weeks ago, I overheard my 17-year-old daughter talking to some friends, and they used the word basic to refer to some other kids.

And it seemed like they were saying kind of vapid or something like that, but it seemed like they were talking about sort of the cool kids.

And my kids are nerds because, you know, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Own it.

Yeah.

Nerd pride.

But it was like a mildly disparaging term, but not like really mean.

Okay.

So it seems like this ought to have some sort of origin, but my kids have no idea where it came from.

So I was curious. Do you guys know where this is from?

Basic.

I can tell you a few things about it.

Like a lot of slang, its true exact origins are lost to time, but I can give you a bit of a time frame, talk about its arc to popularity and its eventual fall.

Basic came around in 2005, 2006 when it started to show up in hip-hop.

And you can actually find it on some Urban Dictionary posts about that time.

You can find it in a few blogs at the time.

It was kind of pre-Twitter, actually.

But it didn’t really catch on until it started to be used by bigger artists in their lyrics, the kind of stuff you’d hear on the radio, whether it was getting a lot of play.

And by 2013, the term broadened just a little bit.

It kind of now meant, vapid is a really good word for it, but it’s kind of like you did all the standard things that anyone would do in order to be caught up with fashion.

And it started to be really kind of gendered and referred to women mostly, and not so much men.

Yeah, that seems right.

And there was another term that came out of it, which a lot of people are probably shouting at the radio.

I don’t think I really want to say it, but it’s basic B, if you can fill in the rest of the letters after B.

Okay, a little alliteration there.

Yeah, the derogatory term for a woman that’s really widespread and also used for a female dog.

I think I got you.

Okay, so vapid in that she’s conforming to what everybody else is doing, not a mind of her own, that kind of thing?

Yeah, so kind of like the women wearing the Uggs and the Han Solo vest and carrying the pumpkin spice latte, you know what I’m saying?

And with the same sunglasses and the same earrings and their lip liner done the same way.

The Hello Kitty.

All the same, right?

Traveling in packs, all basic.

This does seem right.

Yeah, that does conform to the way they’re using it.

Yeah, so once it started to be gendered, it started to really be more vicious and started to be less just kind of descriptive and more pejorative.

But, you know, it kind of burnt out.

2013, 2014 was the heyday for basic and basic B.

And now the term is well on the downswing.

I mean, it’s still being used, but it’s far past its trend peak.

That’s interesting. They use it so natively that it’s like they don’t even have any idea that it wasn’t used before.

How old are they?

They are 13 and 17.

13 and 17. Okay. That’s fine. They’ll probably continue to use it the rest of their lives.

Those are the ages when slang kind of sticks. They’ll be 50 using basic.

Yep. It seems a lot like yuppie used to seem, or preppy almost.

Preppy is close.

You know, preppy for me growing up as a child of the 80s was popped collars and polo shirts and feathered hair and certain kinds of peg jeans.

Yeah, but that’s still sort of mindless conformity.

Well, Steve, something tells me that your daughters are not basic.

They are not.

They’re complex.

They don’t wear the Han Solo vest.

They wear the whole Han Solo outfit.

Really?

Oh, really?

With the blaster as well?

Oh, yes.

Okay, they are nerds.

Oh, yes.

You have no idea.

Nice.

We have our Star Wars costumes made for the premiere.

You have your take?

Oh, nice.

Outstanding.

Well, may the force be with you all.

Okay.

Thank you, guys.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Steve.

Bye-bye.

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