The American Dialect Society Word of the Year: RAWDOG
To rawdog: taking on life without the usual protection, preparation, or comfort. Whether it’s diving into a challenge unprepared or skipping the safety net, rawdogging is about embracing risk, stone-cold sobriety, and rolling with it. #LSA2025
To rawdog: taking on life without the usual protection, preparation, or comfort. Whether it’s diving into a challenge unprepared or skipping the safety net, rawdogging is about embracing risk, stone-cold sobriety, and rolling with it. #LSA2025
Comments
Didn't know the origin, but didn't know it was like that...
The word "run" has dozens of meanings but they all stem from the meaning "to walk extremely fast."
It's "white people appropriating Black culture" yet again.
They know
Some of us are out here rawdogging language.
Like refusing to wear a face mask or get vaccinated. That's where I've most often seen it used outside of the original meaning.
I'm all for the language's evolution, but come the hell on...you have failed your own Mission.
Ok,linguistic society...
https://www.reddit.com/r/Xennials/comments/181btss/i_cant_bear_the_thought_of_rawdogging/?rdt=61620
https://americandialect.org/2024-word-of-the-year-is-rawdog/
Y'all missed the boat.
Sitting through a long flight and accepting None of the comforts, bathroom-inclusive? Rawdogging a flight
Going on a long city walk without your phone? Rawdogging metropolis
The only other real use of rawdogging is related to not wearing a mask during covid but they suspiciously left out that meaning.
Stop rawdogging the air, folks.
And poo.
On them.
And you. ✌️
You guys are not the sharpest butter knives in the drawer.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Snatch
Extremely strange choice!
https://www.rawdogsimulator.com/
Yikes
as the distance between that word and the word dogging is just 3 letters, placed at the beginning of the word. It's easy to misunderstand and end up in the wrong place.
Trying to picture the social media manager who doesn’t know this…very old or very young?
Life can be brutal, protect yourself at all times.
FFS, people.
https://americandialect.org/2024-word-of-the-year-is-rawdog/
ADS is not re-defining the word "Rawdog." They are observing a very interesting redefinition of the word *that has occurred already* in various groups, primarily young people.
It hasn't, tho. Every use apart from the original evokes the original. For instance "rawdogging air", ie going maskless in covid times, is meant to remind one of unprotected sex and the potential consequences thereof.
Precisely! How neat is that!
When was the last time someone used 'weird' to mean 'predestining'?
A room full of linguists don't get to decide the original meaning is obsolete, when culturally the term is still very much understood and used to mean something else.
Far from it...
From raw (“without a condom”) + dog out (“to approach someone sexually”).
Ffs.