The social media app TikTok is known for two things: short, viral videos and catchy, ear-wormy slang.

The app popularizes a new dance, term, or craze every other month or week. Most of the time, whatever term, craze, or dance disappears as soon as it has gained traction, but some slang terms stick onto the public consciousness and refuse to let go.

The term "slay" is one of those slang terms and is among the top favorite terms used on the app. The app has more than a billion monthly active users, so the term has found its wings in that multitude. 

Slay is among the many phrases and catchwords that TikTok has popularized in the late 2010s and the early 2020s. Other terms popularized by the app are:

  • Extra
  • Lit
  • POV
  • Flex
  • FYP, among others

Many of these phrases have multiple meanings, can be used in many contexts, and are often colored by their context. Slay is one of those words.

Depending on the context of the phrase, the term can be endearing, fierce, or biting. Here is a look at what the word means and its connotations.

What Does Slay Mean?

The literal meaning of the term Slay, as per the dictionary, is to kill someone violently.

The usage of the term officially still means to kill someone violently. For example, when describing murders and the like, especially of a violent nature, newspapers and policemen still use the term "slay."

However, the term has come to mean something much more positive in its slang form. The reasoning is that even the root word "slay," which is to kill, has taken a different form.

Not the word "kill" but to kill it, or to be killing it, means to succeed at something very well. And so, in slang terms, "slay" means to do something and do it well.

For example, people can use the word "slay" in the following contexts, and all of them will be correct:

  • You slayed that outfit, or you slayed in that outfit:
    • In this example, "slay" means that the person this phrase is directed to wore that outfit well
  • You slayed at work today, or you slayed at that meeting:
    • In this example, "slay" means that the person this phrase is directed to did a great job at their job and meeting
  • You slay every day
    • In this example, "slay" means that whatever the person does is outstanding and deserves admiration.

Slay can also mean to make someone laugh. For example:

  • You slay me:
    • In this example, "slay" means that the 'you' in the sentence made the 'me' laugh hard.

Slay as a way of meaning to make someone laugh was the most popular slang usage of the word for the longest time. Only recently has the meaning of the term in slang terms changed. 

Finally, the word slay can be used as an exclamation. For example, a person yelling "slay" at someone else when they are doing something well can mean they are encouraging or celebrating the person. 

What Is the History Of The Term "Slay?"

The term "Slay" 's literal meaning is rooted in the Germanic bent of Anglo linguistics.

The term evolved from the germanic word "slean" evolved into the Duct word "slaan" and the German word "Schlagen." The meaning of the word is to strike or kill. 

The word first became extremely prominent in the 1920s in the jazz age, where flappers and other artists used the word to denote making someone laugh very hard. A common expression back then was the phrase "You Slay Me."

Some etymologists had discovered that the word was used as slang in the 1800s when they used it to mean someone looking attractively fashionable.

Finally, in terms of "Slay," as we understand it today, back in the 1970s and 80s, in African American, Latinx, and LGBT ball culture, the word "slaying" meant when a person's outfit, hair, makeup, dance moves, and attitude were all flawless. 

The term originated to describe someone who was "killing it" with their self and style.

The term spread in the intersectional world of the late 20th century LGBT culture, especially in their fashion and drag scene.

Finally, it blew into the mainstream when used in the influential 1991 documentary Paris Is Burning. The documentary about drag in New York City heavily featured the use of the word.

The term kept bouncing around in popular culture until RuPaul's Drag Race brought drag culture into the mainstream, and the term "slay" got another massive boost.

However, the cultural ubiquity that the term "slay" has right now can be traced back to one person: Beyonce.

In the single of her landmark 2016 album, "Lemonade," called "Formation," Beyonce repeatedly uses the term "slay." In the context of the song about female empowerment, specifically regarding African-American women, the term's usage exploded.

Soon enough, not just minorities and LGBT but people at large started using the term "slay." Another phrase borrowed from LGBT ball culture is often used: "Yas, queen!"

However, some people believe that the wide use of the term is a form of appropriation and that the mass appeal and usage is another in a long line of cultural appropriation from minority and LGBT spaces.

Cultural Appropriation And TikTok - Is Using "Slay" Problematic?

In recent years, many people and institutions have been levying charges of cultural appropriation against the social media app TikTok.

The list of terms most popular on the app, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, originated from and were popularized in the drag and ballroom culture of the 1970s and 1980s.

That world of drag and ballroom was home to many people who frequented those circles. Many LGBT people in that era, especially minorities, were kicked out of their houses and moved to the streets.

They lived very sordid lives, and their one escape was into the fantasy world they had created for themselves- a world where they were royalty.

To that end, they created their language as well. The words and phrases they used weren't slang or style to them, and it was a way for them to be rid of oppression and express themselves in a way that would be perfectly understandable to people like them. 

However, because of a social media app primarily used by children, the term is being thrown around by any suburban teenager and middle-aged mothers who don't know a lick about the word's history. 

In a way, the popularization of the term "slay" can be seen as a form of language gentrification and cultural appropriation. 

However, one song cannot cause such a large shift in the language of two generations. Beyonce's "Formation" may have popularized the term "slay," but the rise of Hip Hop, especially female-led Hip-Hop, is primarily why so many suburban people have become familiar with vernacular from the drag culture of the 70s and 80s.

2016 was not just the release year of the Beyonce song, but it was also a year where Rap music was on the cusp of not only breaking into the mainstream, which it had done a decade earlier but becoming the most dominant form of music in the western world. 

In 2017, Rap finally outsold all other genres, especially Rock, which had been seen as the reigning form of popular music since its inception.

With the rise of Rap music came the ingratiation of Rap culture, African American culture, into the mainstream audience. Not only terms like "slay" and "lit" but fashion, art, and linguistics themselves began taking from African American culture.

Outside the ballroom and drag culture, a huge demographic of people who frequently used the term "slay" were African American women. So, many African American female rappers became popular when rap took over as the dominant musical genre.

Other artists like Rihanna followed Beyonce's usage of the term. Then, strictly rappers like Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, and more recently, Latto, started using the term.

As with almost everything else in American culture, once the African Americans started using it, the Caucasian population wasn't far behind, and soon enough, every teenage and college-aged girl's social media captions consisted of the term "slay" and even middle-aged stay-at-home moms. 

Slay has become so common that merchandise is being made to be sold at such friendly places as Walmart and TJ Max.

However, the root of the matter still stands just beneath the light. "Slay" is part of the jargon used to elucidate the struggles of a long-suffering people, and for it to be denigrated in the mainstream like it is right now is nothing short of dehumanizing and tokenist. 

Read more about slang terms here: What Does 'UWU' Mean On TikTok? Meaning In English Translation

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