Not a day goes past on TikTok without Gen-Z taking the piss out of millennials and now they’ve got a whole new word for it – cheugy. Side partings, live laugh love signs, chevron prints, Minion memes, a weird love of Disney after the age of eight, matching his and hers towels, yeah these things are all basic and millennial, but now they’re also considered cheugy.
Cheugy is kinda an extension of basic but it’s a very specific aesthetic and you can probably picture someone you know who you would describe as cheugy. They’ve probably got a wine glass with a girl boss font on it and still think Instagram is the most relevant social media platform.
Last week, the
New York Times did a deep dive on the confusing descriptive term “cheugy” (pronounced “chew-gee,” with a hard g ) that is being used all over TikTok and social media.
In the NYT article, author Taylor Lorenz writes that the word “cheugy” is used “to describe someone who is out of date or trying too hard,” and clarified that “although a lot of cheugy things are associated with millennial women, the term can be applied to anyone of any gender and any age.”
What Does Cheugy mean?
According to Urban Dictionary, cheugy is defined as “the opposite of trendy. Stylish in middle school and high school but no longer in style. Used when someone still follows these out of date trends. This may include but not be limited to fashion, habits on social media, usage of slang, etc.”
Gen Z now has a word for millennials who try too hard Sandra Salathe
TikTokers have spoken, and it appears they’ve coined a new word for millennials who try too hard - “cheugy.”
Created by Gaby Rasson, a 23-year-old a software developer in Los Angeles, the term describes people who are slightly off-trend, or trying just that little bit too much. It was initially coined in 2013, but has since grown in popularity among TikTokers.
“OK TikTok, I have a new word for you that my friends and I use that you clearly are all in need of,” Hallie Cain, a 24-year-old copywriter in Los Angeles, said in a TikTok posted on March 30.