I’ll keep the “old sayings” conversation going…
Posted by Steely-Dave@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 159 comments
You guys have no confusion if I yell the word sike, right? I was shocked my kids had no idea what this word could even mean. And I’m further shocked by people around my age that say ‘don’t you mean “psyche”. No, I don’t. We actually had a SIKE program (definitely local thing, I think) they started in my middle school that stood for some anti-bullying buzz words. I’m not crazy people.
PuzzleheadedStage426@reddit
I just broke up with ex girl, here's here number...
SIKE!! thats the wrong number!!!!
Raxus333@reddit
I still use "amazeballs". Dunno how old it is though.
"Rad" is another regular of mine. Many things are rad, like this convo.
beyeond@reddit
In what context do you use amazeballs? I've never heard this and I'm about to swerve into a median because I now know this word.
I'm joking, but I seriously have never heard anyone say this. I'm in the mid Atlantic region
akm1111@reddit
Something good happens. "OMG, that's amazeballs!"
beyeond@reddit
Are we talking oh em gee or oh my god?
akm1111@reddit
You do you. I'm not gonna tell you which YOU should use. But half the time, I literally say OMG.
Raxus333@reddit
"Amazeballs" means "really awesome", generally speaking.
"See my new phone? Look at X great new feature I've got now!"
"Holy shit, that's amazeballs! I'm stoked for you!"
Weak_Radish966@reddit
Amazeballs is about 2010 era.
MotherofaPickle@reddit
Yeah, that’s way past my time.
Grouchy-Reflection97@reddit
I'm in a little crafting meet-up group, where I'm one of a handful of members over 40. The rest are in their 20's and 30's.
The topic of Pedro Pascal came up one time, and I said 'schwing!' only to be met with blank expressions. Even my fellow elders let me down.
Not a single 'if he were president, he'd be Babe-raham Lincoln' response.
MotherofaPickle@reddit
Wayne’s World and Wayne’s World 2 are all over Pluto TV right now and Garth’s “Schwing!”’s crack me up Every. Single. Time.
Grouchy-Reflection97@reddit
Both films are in my exclusive 'films where a cinema employee had to tell me to calm down', as I was laughing so much when I first saw them.
I bought a little Wayne's World tie-in book at the time the first one came out, and I'm bummed it's lost to time and multiple house moves.
I read it so much that I absorbed stuff into my standard vocabulary. Eg, as a lifelong asthmatic, phlegm is a common topic at checkups, and I've been calling it 'lung butter' since 1992, lol.
There were little poems in there, too, which still sometimes pop in my head. I did English Literature at uni, so I sometimes have to think, 'is that an old timey poet, a rap lyric, or that Wayne's World book?'. It's very rarely an old timey poet.
strix_nebul0sa@reddit
They all blow goats. You have proof!
grn_eyed_bandit@reddit
A schwing and a miss
MotherofaPickle@reddit
I have two:
My husband said, “Guess what?!” last night. I immediately replied, “Chicken butt!”
I constantly call my robo vacuum an ignorant slut. As in, it gets stuck in a stupid place and I say, “DJ Roomba, you ignorant slut!” I don’t say it around my kids because that particular bit was misogynistic to the degree that it make even me uncomfortable, but my line is a fine amalgamation of two good shows.
Face88888888@reddit
Ahh, a fellow PnR fan I see.
Proof-Emergency-5441@reddit
No, that is from SNL in 1979. PnR is not the original.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LiveFromNewYork/comments/u9fkon/the_famous_jane_you_ignorant_slut_weekend_update/
Face88888888@reddit
Roombas didn’t exist in 1979. DJ roomba is definitely from PnR.
Proof-Emergency-5441@reddit
Got it. I don't care about either of those shows, so explains why I dont know their references.
EBN_Drummer@reddit
We've taught my 6 year old son the "Guess what?" one plus the response "Why?" with the reply "chicken thigh!"
kingofrod83@reddit
Anybody else say "tricked it" if someone messed something up? That might be very centralized to the small town I'm from, but I still say "you tricked it" and "trying not to trick it off" 30 years later.
Mission_Tip7003@reddit
Da bomb
Astrazigniferi@reddit
It da bomb dot com, dude.
Lorena_in_SD@reddit
I had a Gen X officemate say something was "the bomb dot com" and belatedly realized I was probably the only person present who understood the reference as our other officemates at the time were all Gen Zers...
fubo@reddit
Da biggety bizzomb.
superschaap81@reddit
My 60+yo boss still says this, unironically, to clients and truck dispatchers.
Curtainmachine@reddit
Nobody “talks to the hand” anymore. Whether or not “the face gives a damn”.
I missed the first part of this conversation so maybe that’s been covered already
Platt_Mallar@reddit
What does sike mean?
tiredhippo@reddit
It’s psych but people can’t spell or are willfully ignorant
LilMushboom@reddit
it was always psych (hence the tv show), "sike" came from a badly misspelled gen z meme, I don't know what OP is smoking
Face88888888@reddit
Psych has always been correct, but sike didn’t come from gen z. It came from trying to spell it phonetically. Plenty of people our age made that mistake. There’s proof here in the comments of this post.
helikophis@reddit
Oh no, people were spelling it that way in the 90s, before Gen Z was even born
MungoJennie@reddit
They were, but it was annoying then, too.
Background-Vast-8764@reddit
He’s smoking sike-o-active substances
LilMushboom@reddit
😭
mouse6502@reddit
it’s sike tho.
saltyhashbrowns@reddit
I seriously don't understand why you are getting downvoted in this sub because you are right 😂 and I am sure you are crying about it.
Sike!
mouse6502@reddit
the people spelling it “psych” obviously got gleeked on and/or wore backpacks with both shoulder straps!
Astrazigniferi@reddit
It was only “sike” to people that didn’t know the word it came from. It was “psych.”
Sufficient_Turn_9209@reddit
Had to scroll too far for this man, because reading "sike" was confusing, but if he yelled "psych!" I'd get it.
Blackbird136@reddit
In OP’s defense, I never knew it was spelled “psych” (or its origin, tbh) until I was at least 30. As a kid if I had been asked to write the word, I’d have definitely written SIKE.
looselyhuman@reddit
Yep, as in pulling some psychological shit.
GarminTamzarian@reddit
Platt_Mallar@reddit
I WAS TRYING TO MAKE A LAME JOKE!
al_m1101@reddit
To "psych out."
Like you'd pretend to do something, like hold up your hand for a high five, but then when someone goes to high five you, you pull back back your hand fast and yell "PSYCH!"
That's mainly what we did. Or, pretending like you're gonna drop something, like a cake, then when people jump back, you'd yell "PSYCH!"
It was basically to fuck with people.
thewilldog@reddit
We used to elongate the pronunciation into
"Syyyyeeeek! with a pitch change through (low to high)
surewhynotokaythen@reddit
To psych someone out, originally, but during our time it meant jk
grn_eyed_bandit@reddit
Like I faked you out.
E.g. I saw gas for $2 today! (You - picks up phone and looks on gas buddy) -- ME: SIKE!!!!
Platt_Mallar@reddit
SIKE!
I'm very, very, very sorry I did this.
3sclavamente@reddit
NOT
Fair_Stage@reddit
Here in Oklahima we said SIKE when we were joshing someone lol
grn_eyed_bandit@reddit
*Joshing*** that’s a good one!
Fair_Stage@reddit
I was hoping someone would appreciate a good JOSHING
LtPowers@reddit
Just because people have been misspelling "psych" for 40 years doesn't mean it's not a misspelling.
grn_eyed_bandit@reddit
We would say *joanin*** (sp???) when someone was being made fun of.
suenew@reddit
Do people still say that's tight? I was talking to my husband recently and told him I'm going to start using it again. Lol
grn_eyed_bandit@reddit
My brother uses it daily 🤣
anarchetype@reddit
I don't think so, but I fully condone bringing it back for the potential misunderstandings it may cause among the younger generations. Give them a little taste of their own medicine, I suppose.
theinvisablewoman@reddit
Honestly on the tram a while ago and a couple of kids were using pig latern to discuss my ring. They got quite a shock when I joined in
Sanchastayswoke@reddit
You mean Pig Latin?
theinvisablewoman@reddit
Lol I do oops
Apprehensive-Cat-111@reddit
Specifically, we said “sike naw”. To I guess make it super clear we were kidding.
RadHawtLuv77@reddit
Sorrok2400@reddit
Did everyone used to say “dip” to mean leave, or was that only a Miami thing? Now it seems it’s gone global
Novel_Towel6125@reddit
Audi 5000, G
Sanchastayswoke@reddit
I’m gonna dip out, yep
lavasca@reddit
Didn’t even know it was slsng. Normal in California.
detourne@reddit
Dip out, for me
beyeond@reddit
I still say this. Been in VA most of my life
Fair_Blood3176@reddit
Or the alternative aggressive "NOT!"
Jacgaur@reddit
HurricaneMedina@reddit
This suit is NOTTT black.
sc212@reddit
This suit is blacknot.
Steely-Dave@reddit (OP)
Children today do not understand the efficiency of our language back then.
Liathano_Fire@reddit
I mean they do, just with their own lingo. Like cap, no cap.
Also, kids these days do say sike, but at the other person.
"Say sike right now" was a thing recently enough.
Steely-Dave@reddit (OP)
I saw that. I’m confused by it.😅
Starbreiz@reddit
you meant psych and not psychE. But I never understood why it was spelled SIKE. Its always bugged me lol.
Sanchastayswoke@reddit
Same here.
Steely-Dave@reddit (OP)
You’ve found what was actually bugging you. People like me.😅
anarchetype@reddit
I'm with you on this one. Back in the day I would only ever spell it as "psych", but it always kinda bugged me how ambiguous that might seem. Now I've fully adopted "sike" as its own word.
cerealkilla718@reddit
When I saw old sayings I thought of my Grandmother saying "I don't have a pot to piss in, or a window to throw it out of".
Sanchastayswoke@reddit
My grandma would say “I need that like I need a hole in my head!” Or “well, that went over like a lead balloon.”
photogypsy@reddit
My great-grandma was born in 1902 and died in 2004. Her version of this was “we were dirt poor and happy to have dirt”.
ColdMastadon@reddit
That sounds like something Steve Martin would have said in The Jerk.
photogypsy@reddit
Granny lived through two world wars, women’s suffrage, prohibition, the Depression, sent three sons to the Korean War (all three came home thankfully), one to Vietnam (my grandfather served in both Korea and Vietnam), the feminist movement of the 60s/70s, 9/11 and sent two grandsons, three great grandsons and a granddaughter to Afghanistan all before she died. She was a living history book.
saltyhashbrowns@reddit
Same. I thought it meant the ones we heard from our parents.
desertdweller2011@reddit
i recently rewatched peewee’s big adventure and i forgot about so many phrases that i don’t think i realized at the time came from him. ‘i know you are but what am i?’ ‘take a picture it’ll last longer’ ‘that’s my name dont wear it out’
Sanchastayswoke@reddit
I don’t make monkeys, I just train them
EBN_Drummer@reddit
"I don't make monkeys. I just train them!"
And "I'm a loner Dottie. A rebel."
nobot4321@reddit
I still say “I meant to do that” when I publicly embarrass myself.
TangledUpPuppeteer@reddit
Not the same, but related, in a nasally voice, “did I do that?” When legit totally just did that.
Hypnot0ad@reddit
You just reminded me that I dressed as Steve Urkle for Halloween when I was 11.
TangledUpPuppeteer@reddit
😂 I never did. I actually wore glasses, but they weren’t quite Urkle bad 😂
Steely-Dave@reddit (OP)
“Im going to take you out.” “Well, I don’t take out garbage.”
PetMonsterGuy@reddit
“Why don’t you make me?” “Why don’t you make me?” “Because I don’t make monkeys, I just train’ em!”
anarchetype@reddit
This one, which I haven't heard since probably middle school in southeast Alabama:
Never heard "shoot the cag", though. You just got cagged. Fuck, the caggers were so annoying too.
psibear@reddit
Gag me with a spoon!
anarchetype@reddit
Mattimvs@reddit
My staff are all millennial/Z's. I said to them: 'you don't have to be anal about it'
TLDR: Thats not a term that made it past us....
anarchetype@reddit
In retrospect, that is a weird one. For one thing, the word "anal" probably more often than not is used to refer to a sex act. Also, why were we casually referencing a debunked Sigmund Freud theory in everyday conversation?
Being "anal" was the shortened form of "anal retentive", which comes from Freud's theory that harsh toilet training in childhood resulted in a personality type of one being hung up on controlling every little thing. Probably a lot of people described that way would later be more accurately diagnosed with OCD.
We still use "oedipal" as an adjective too and that's more Freudian bullshit that lives on as an artifact of our language.
Mattimvs@reddit
I'm sorry but I read your response in Miles Crane's voice
tiredhippo@reddit
Why does everyone mis-spell “psych”?
It’s psych. Like “psych you out” as in psychological.
DukeSpaghetti@reddit
anarchetype@reddit
Steely-Dave@reddit (OP)
EXACTLY!
anarchetype@reddit
It's pretty far removed from from the "psych you out" meaning at this point. It lost the competitive aspect and is more like "just kidding", as it has been for a while, so I'm okay with the spelling evolving as well.
Frosty_Cloud_2888@reddit
I have never heard of sike, but the internets tell me it’s a different spelling of psyche.
I really liked the tv show psyche.
Astrazigniferi@reddit
Psych, not psyche. Psych is pronounced “s-eye-k”. Psyche is pronounced “s-eye-kee.”
Describing pronunciation in writing is hard!
detourne@reddit
Psych is an adjective, as in psych ward. Psyche is a noun that means a consciouness. Both psych and psyche (pronounced the same) are used as the verb here. Just as breathe is the verb form of breath, psyche is the verb form.
Frosty_Cloud_2888@reddit
It is I struggle with it everyday, I blame the schools
Astrazigniferi@reddit
Greek word roots make everything harder. I remember my mind being blown when I learned the correct pronunciation of Aphrodite. My mom had a VHS of a movie called Mighty Aphrodite and I could not believe those words were supposed to rhyme.
Redditdotlimo@reddit
You weren't hooked on phonics.
Frosty_Cloud_2888@reddit
Esdexia
subsonicmonkey@reddit
Sike was originally “psyched out” as in “I psyched you out!”
Eventually shortened/misspelled as Sike.
Frosty_Cloud_2888@reddit
I read it like Nike but with a s. This was not a thing by me.
mindsunwound@reddit
So pronounced See-kay?
Mr-ShinyAndNew@reddit
Great Scott!
Steely-Dave@reddit (OP)
Absolutely. And I feel like sike was its own beast. “Psyche” was the catalyst, but never apart of my vocabulary as an alternative.
Seven22am@reddit
You know that’s right. Streaming on Peacock.
Roklam@reddit
Gleeking?
Or volunteering to be punched in the face, as I remember it.
DateCard@reddit
Are you saying that gleeking was volunteering to be punched in the face? Because, at my school, it was ejecting spit by pressing the tongue to the roof of the mouth 😒
lavasca@reddit
Yours is the correct definition.
Jerkrollatex@reddit
That's the meaning I remember too.
marasamune@reddit
Yes, and if someone did that to me, they got punched in the face.
DateCard@reddit
Lol, I get it now. It was so gross.
photogypsy@reddit
You know I just had to try and see if I could still do it. I did it over the bathroom sink because I’m not feral; but I can still do it.
Liathano_Fire@reddit
Gleeking was spitting a certain way with your tongue
HurricaneMedina@reddit
Smooth move, Ex-Lax.
anarchetype@reddit
No shit, Sherlock.
Frankie_Beans@reddit
What are you going to do for an encore, gargle peanut butter?
nilyro@reddit
I still say geekin out and no I refuse to explain what that is if the person asks. I don't know how to explain it anyway lol
Steely-Dave@reddit (OP)
Typical conversation with my wife. “I’m not a nerd. I’m a dork.” “What does that mean.” “You know, I geek out over certain things.” “So you’re a geek?” ..”God dammit.”
anarchetype@reddit
That reminds me of the SNL sketch in the 90s that was a game show where contestants had to figure out if someone was a geek, a dweeb, or a spaz.
This_hoe_dumb@reddit
No confusion here. I don’t have one word, but I’ve always told my kids that snitches get stitches.
ClutterKitty@reddit
Snitches get stitches and sleep with the fishes.
Skywren7@reddit
And wind up in ditches. Haha
Pocleese@reddit
Snitches and talkers get stitches and walkers
happytechtn@reddit
Ooooo I’ve never heard the talkers & walkers part. I like that!!
HipHopGrandpa@reddit
*PSYCH
sike is not a word. To “psych” someone out literally stems from psychologically manipulating them.
leicanthrope@reddit
I still hold that it’s “psych” instead of “sike”. I never saw the latter until Reddit became a thing.
TangledUpPuppeteer@reddit
Fugly. We all said it and then just all stopped saying it.
Background-Vast-8764@reddit
Pug fugly
TangledUpPuppeteer@reddit
Never heard that as a saying. Just like “dayum! That pug fuuuugly!”
Fahlulah@reddit
I used "up your @ and around the corner" the other day and my teen heard me and looked at me in pure confusion and said "what does that mean?"
Cisru711@reddit
See ya OP, wouldn't want to be ya.
imnottheoneipromise@reddit
Hey, there’s a monkey on your back. SIIIIIIIKE!
Chemical_Shelter9816@reddit
Cool beans, man. Cool beans.
Weak_Radish966@reddit
This may have been only in my region of Massachusetts and only for about 1 year, 92/93, but I remember kids saying "urv" to describe something rad. Like you would do a sweet jump on your bike and then say "that was urv!"
TopRedacted@reddit
Everyone looks shocked when they ask what's up and say hard dicks and helicopters
akm1111@reddit
My SFW reply is "the ceiling" unless we are outside then it's the sky
_Mr_Nice_Guy@reddit
If you were proven wrong then “you got moded”
mmoonbelly@reddit
To me…
VaticRogue@reddit
All that and a bag of chips
t_bone_stake@reddit
That was brought up in conversation last week with a coworker of mine. Coworker said “all that” and without missing a beat, I finished it with “and a bag of chips.” What made it painful for me was coworker said he wanted a bag of chips just then.
3sclavamente@reddit
Happy early college memory for me. Freshman year we still wanted to trick or treat I HUNG OUT WITH NERDS and was not getting laid like i damn well shoulda been but still hang in w me for the bag of chips. We headed out of college zone to the NICE FULL SIZE CANDY BAR part of another town to visit the actual home neighborhood of one of our associates.
We scored so much candy as college freshman and yes it was the before 9-11 times so we had costumes and were having fun. We showed our haul off to the mom of the friend and i got to say, out loud, "i got all this AND a bag of chips."
Thanks for coming to my tedtalk about how completely low risk i was as a college freshgirl by chosing to pal up with dudes studying computer science at a state school.
TouchYourGrass@reddit
https://i.redd.it/ztxvdl2670mf1.gif
OP to his kids when they say they don’t understand what sike means.
KeoniDm@reddit
Word to the mutha!
Steely-Dave@reddit (OP)
Word to your mother.
jojocookiedough@reddit
I've been teaching my kids Sike and Whatever since they were toddlers, the old ways shall live on....