Brannon, a high-schooler in Dallas, Texas, wonders about the meaning of slang term on fleek, meaning perfect or just right. Peaches Monroee popularized this expression in a Vine where she was proud of having eyebrows “on fleek.” She later explained that what she was really saying was on flick, as in “on point.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Origins of the Slang Term On Fleek”
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, my name is Brianna McCain, and I’m from Dallas, Texas.
Hey, welcome, Brianna. What can we do for you?
When I was in middle school about three years ago, there was this word going around that I had no idea what it meant. The word was on fleek, and I would ask my peers what the word meant, and they really couldn’t tell me. I felt like you could sort of help me out with that.
Yeah, sure, absolutely. And the timing is just about perfect for when on fleek was really popular in slang. So you’re in high school now, I gather?
Yes, I’ll be a junior, actually, this coming school year.
Excellent. And so are people still using on fleek in your school?
They use it occasionally. It’s not as popular, I’m guessing, as it used to be. But it’s still the same situation. They really can’t tell me what on fleek means. When I ask them, they’re like, on fleek means on fleek. They define the word with the word itself, which is circular, right?
Yeah. Yeah, it’s not very helpful. But is your sense of it that if somebody’s on fleek, they’re looking good or they’re just right or something like that maybe?
They use it in that sort of context. But I’ve also heard it used in like food is on fleek or your hair is on fleek or this TV show is on fleek. And so I feel like it has different meanings depending on when it’s said.
Right. That’s good. That’s a common thing in language. Context matters.
So a little bit of background on this just to help you out. There was a young woman named Peaches Monroe who posted a, I believe it was a Vine, a short video on social media in 2014. And Peaches used what sounded like to a lot of people the phrase on fleek. She said something about finna get crunk, eyebrows on fleek is what it sounded like to people. And this post, because she was great, she just had a wonderful miniature performance. And she just was very expressive. And people just loved her look and her sound and everything. It went viral. And so she is the person who popularized on fleek as slang in the United States. And it was really common in 2014 and 2015. And then kind of has slowed down quite a bit. But it looks like it’s probably going to stick around in slang as a much less frequently used word, but not disappear.
In any case, what’s really interesting is after she posted that original video, she later posted one and said, I didn’t say fleek. I said F-L-I-C-K. She meant on fleek. And what she meant was, and she explains it in interviews and other places, she said it means on point. If your eyebrows are on fleek, they’re perfect. They’re exactly as you want them to be, like perfectly outlined or straight or colored or whatever it is. And so a lot of uses of on fleek, especially in the early days of the slang term, were about hair on fleek or clothes on fleek or makeup on fleek or just something about your physical appearance being exquisite and well done and just looking really fine or really nice. They weren’t trying to say anything badly. They were trying to give a compliment.
That’s right. Exactly. Just right. Just as good as it could possibly be. Exactly what you want in a good way.
That makes a whole lot more sense now. I really appreciate it.
Sure. Yeah, our pleasure. And good luck with school. And you let us know if there’s something else that you hear in school that you’re pretty sure that we need to hear about. All right?
Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. Take care of yourself. Bye-bye. Thanks, Brianna.
Well, if you’ve got a question about language, you’ve been wondering about something, we may be able to clear it up for you. So call us 877-929-9673.
