The Algorithm is God Now – The Etymology Nerd
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– VIDEO NOTES
Adam Aleksic, known online as Etymology Nerd, is an American linguist and content creator who produces videos exploring the origins of words. He began exploring word origins in 2016 through his blog. Aleksic studied at Harvard University, where he gained attention for his educational TikTok videos on linguistics and language in 2023. In 2025, he published Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language.
– LINKS
Buy “Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language”: https://amzn.to/3NcOLpw
– TIMESTAMPS
0:00 – Will Social Media End Local Languages?
7:49 – Why Does Language Change?
15:11 – What Is Algospeak?
22:33 – We Worship Our Phones
27:36 – Upcoming Slang to Invest In
33:26 – Online Slang That Never Quite Caught On
38:48 – Introducing Adam to British Slang
47:13 – The Origins of Language
57:22 – Punctuation in Text Messaging
1:06:24 – The Latin Mass and Hocus Pocus
1:13:44 – The Message of Algospeak
– CONNECT
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The Within Reason Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/within-reason/id1458675168
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@JolyneJotten
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
This man is a genius.
@nievedonnelly2154
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
I would love to hear Adam talk about rage bait
@WINGTOWING
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
A song is dead when you play a song to death.
@WINGTOWING
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
The word "BRO" has got out of hand, people can squeeze the word "Bro" 5 or 6 times into a sentence 10 words long.
@WINGTOWING
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
Slang is short for (s)ecret (lang)uage, cockney rhyming slang was developed and used to converse openly in public while keeping certain words and meaning secret.
@dinoteddy4842
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
Explain kawaii then Hmmmm?? Check mate
@anterich3752
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
You like saying "like" a lot.
@danielsecrest5018
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
Would it be possible to subvert The Algorithm by filling chats/comments with emotionally neutral text?
@mattjhodgkinson79
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
I'm English and recognised none of the British slang Alex mentioned other than "dead" and "bare", and I never use the latter. I feel old.
@danielspears2834
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
What are you saying is also big in Canada everyone says Wys
@statistististician
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
6:15 there are no new thoughts is not true. When we experience something as someone who has never been born before, interacting with a visual stimulus that no one has seen in the exact same way before and comparing that to our own, again, very specific experiences, we are thinking ‘something new’. I don’t understand the idea of ‘better’ vs ‘worse’ thoughts, thoughts simply are
@joosh.e
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
Im curious if algospeak (or any of Etymology Nerd's other stuff) has touched on the trend of people using vagueness (particularly niche acronyms) to boost engagement by having people go to the comments and type "what is he talking about?" "what does lmnop mean? "i know what lol normally means but this isnt funny so is there another meaning here?"
@joosh.e
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
I am currently reading (listening to the audiobook of) Elantris by Brandon Sanderson and it has a lot of made up words from made up languages, and one stuck out to me: Svrakiss (pronounced Sfrock-iss in the audiobook). It is used as a word for what are essentially demons/humans that are forbidden entry into the afterlife of this particular religion; generally one who is evil. And just from the sound of it, it sounds demonic and evil to me. Like without the context of the book, if you told me that it was a word used to represent a concept of holiness or evil, I think I would have been able to guess, with reasonable certainty, that it represented an evil concept. I believe he does his conlangs very well in this book, maybe even a bit overdone.
@beansprugget
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
1:02:00 re: the Bible. "Thou" actually an old "informal" way of saying "you", because God is supposed to be more relatable. It's like how eg Chinese has 你 (informal) versus 您 (formal).
@ChewingGumFlavor
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
This is a crossover I would never expect but welcome wholeheartedly
@JonSnowballss
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
Love you Alex but you don't need to add commercials, it cheapens your otherwise excellent channel. I don't want to buy the goo you are promoting, food should look like and actually be food, spending time to eat real food is an good use of time.
@jason3898
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
22:00 "looSe LANGuage"
@im.mmxvii
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
It's funny, a lot of this British slang he referenced is relevant here in Canada too, but yet America seems isolated from it.
@jasonbrodie4827
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
Enrique Enriquez would be the perfect guest in light of this interview.
@Kleiny12321
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
Great conversation! Was having a conversation about these very topics the other day.
@brainwater176
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
That's the end
@thekaratekidpartii2169
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
Steve Albini
@whycreepy
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
I really hate Samsung…
@orionscythe
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
10:07 HOLY GD REFERENCE
@ivanbordage5408
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
Nice chat gentlemen, well done
@rose-bk3zh
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
bestus guestus
@fakuwaku-x1k
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
I love those topics ❤ you can realize how complicated the human culture and language, I think everything around us needs some philosophical views
@amphernee
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
I feel like this guy shorted “vibe” on Kalshi right before this dropped 😅
@andybaldman
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
36:09 The thing you're trying to think of is Esperanto.
@andybaldman
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
Holy shit. Talk about an amazing crossover I was not expecting…
@ALavin-en1kr
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
That Alex does not address the Irish contribution and lumps it into “British” the Irish would not appreciate. The Irish have colorful phrases such as someone having “lost the run of himself” which is another versions of “getting too big for his britches”. Again the Irish other than the Scots Presbyterian settlers, who President Jefferson referred to as Savages, the Irish are not British or want to be, so make the distinction; the Irish Republic or Free State is NOT British. To ignore the Irish contribution to the English language is likely due to cluelessness. The Irish especially from County Cork were banished to Jamaica. Recently the accent of a person from Cork County and from Jamaica were compared and you could not see daylight between them. Also Sanskrit is the Mother tongue of most Indo European languages and its alphabet is based on actual physical sounds. So language similar to oxygen and water is a given.
@ALavin-en1kr
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
The Irish turned the English language into something very creative and descriptive. James Joyce with his Classical education took it to the max and with a day in the life of Leopoldo Bloom and his Molly it was more than interesting it was engaging as was a Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man, as was the story of a Dublin party which Alicia Huston played beautifully in. Back in the day some Irish grandmothers spoke Shakespeare’s English as that was what they heard, although the Black and Tan thugs foisted on them did not speak Shakespearian English, the Landlords for whom the Irish worked as servants did. A grandmother could emote some Shakespeare without having Shakespeare. With the child’s version of Shakespeare and The Taming of the Shrew in hand life was good. Then Lady Gregory and Yeats who were fascinated by what the Irish had done with the English language. There was Playboy of the Western World at the Abbey Theatre which devolved into riots as the performance had to be called off.
@ALavin-en1kr
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
Who said God is dead and later died and God said now you are dead and I am still here as Existence; Consciousness; Bliss. I think it was Nietzsche who later went mad, and was unstable to begin with. Whether his madness was genetic or due to syphilis as was the case before antibiotics were available, many back in the day went mad. Now with antibiotics getting used to the antidotes and coming up with modes to resist them VD is becoming a problem again and the antidotes may not be able to keep up so are we to have Mental Institutions again? That is the situation while the clueless are gabbing on about polyamory or something. The human is vulnerable to idiocy, that is the case.
@ALavin-en1kr
July 26, 2026 at 10:48 pm
Again our prototype is not a monkey it is the Universe, atheist materialists get a grip the anthropic is looming and if you do not begin to see three macro dimensions: Consciousness (fundamental); Mind (subtly elemental); the Physical or Matter (densely elemental), you are going to be up a creek without a paddle and will be left behind in the outer darkness where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth, according to scripture. So leave Darwin, Apes, and such behind we are at the cusp of a Quantum Age. The Atomic Age will fade and it is time to look ahead as the Precession of the Equinoxes takes us forward, or inwards. Devolution: Linear Evolution; Involution. Stop with the emphases on linear evolution, enough.
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