This post introduces Japanese slang words that are used on X (Twitter), with some of them used on other social media as well like Instagram. Most of them have been used for a long time (unlike typical slang terms), so they probably won’t become obsolete very soon. Since Twitter has been rebranded as “X” recently, some of the following slang words may or may not change as time passes.
(If you have an X account, you may follow my account: @takashionary.)
インプレゾンビ (inpure zonbi; “Impression Zombie”)
インプレゾンビ literally means “impression zombie”, where インプレ stands for インプレッション (“impression”). Figuratively, it indicates annoying “verified” X bots/accounts that reply to trending posts out of nowhere, saying meaningless stuff like “Good” and “Really”, just for the sake of earning impressions and ads revenue.
These “zombies” suddenly emerged after Twitter was rebranded as X and started the ads revenue sharing program, where verified X users can earn money based on the number of impressions they get through their posts or replies. At first, they appeared only in the replies to someone else’s posts, but now they also post their own tweets using trending words and hashtags, and/or copying others’ trending posts. This became problematic when the big earthquake hit Japan this month and they posted lots of fake “SOS” posts.
クソリプ (kusoripu)
クソリプ (kusoripu) is short for “クソリプライ” and means “a sh*t reply” from someone (usually randos) on Twitter. For instance, those replies that are very abusive, incredibly illogical, and/or completely off the mark/topic, are all クソリプ.
エアリプ (earipu)
エアリプ (also 空リプ) is short for the Japlish term エアーリプライ (“air reply”) and means “to subtweet; to implicitly reply/react to someone’s tweet without mentioning them”. Some people do this to deny, criticise and/or make fun of someone’s tweet while avoiding entering into an argument or quarrel.
パクツイ (pakutsui)
パクツイ (also ツイパク) means “a tweet that steals other people’s trending tweets or ideas”. It’s short for パクる + ツイート (tweet), where パクる is a casual word that means “to steal”.
ツイ禁 (tsuikin)
ツイ禁 (ついきん, tsuikin) means to stop using Twitter for a while (to focus on one’s studies, for example). Here, 禁 comes from the word 禁止 (きんし), meaning “ban/restriction”.
中の人 (naka no hito)
中の人 (なかのひと, naka no hito) literally means “an inside person” and means “a person who organises an anonymous or business account”. For instance, the 中の人 of Takashionary is me, Takashi.
垢 (aka)
Originally, 垢 (あか, aka) means “dirt”, but on Twitter (and other social media platforms), it’s used as an abbreviation for アカウント (“account”). There are several Twitter slang words which contain 垢 as follows:
鍵垢 (kagi aka)
鍵垢 (かぎあか, kagi aka) means “a private Twitter account”, where 鍵 (かぎ) means “a key/lock”.
サブ垢 (sabu aka)
サブ垢 (sabu aka) means “a secondary account”: an account that one uses other than one’s main account, which is 本垢 (ほんあか, hon aka). Some heavy users have multiple サブ垢s to follow different types of people and tweet about different stuff.
裏垢 (ura aka)
裏垢 means “a burner account; one’s account that he/she keeps secret from people he/she knows in real life”. The first kanji 裏 (うら) means “back/behind”, and it usually implies that 裏垢 is サブ垢 (a secondary account).
The reason for making 裏垢 varies greatly, e.g. for venting out their anger and frustration towards people around them (e.g. their friends/colleagues/bosses); for otaku activities like stanning specific idols or anime characters; or for indecent purposes.
オタ垢 (ota aka)
オタ垢 (おたあか, ota aka) means “an account one uses just to engage in otaku activities (e.g. actively follow idol groups, anime/manga stuff, etc)”. Many people organise オタ垢 as 鍵垢 (a private account) or 裏垢 (a secret account) to avoid flooding their friends’ timelines (TL) with otaku-specific tweets.
垢バレ (aka bare)
垢バレ means “one’s (secret) account is discovered by people whom he/she knows in real life”. Here, バレ is short for バレる, meaning “be discovered/revealed”. It’s also called 身バレ (みばれ).
垢BAN (aka ban)
垢BAN (aka ban) means “account ban”, and “垢banされた” means “one’s account is banned”.
バカッター (bakattā)
バカッター (bakattā) indicates idiots (or their stupid behaviour) who upload on Twitter clear evidence (e.g. photos) of their “audacious” and inappropriate (and often illegal) acts, and come under fire as a consequence. Examples of バカッター include pretentious kids under the legal age drinking and smoking with the lads, foolish restaurant employees sitting in a fridge (as a prank), and so on.
This is one of many Japanese portmanteau words that combines バカ (“stupid”) and ツイッター (“Twitter”), and because of its good rhythm, such stupid behaviour is often called バカッター even if it happens on other social media like Instagram (some call it “バカスタグラム”, but it’s far less common).
ツイ廃 (tsuihai)
ツイ廃 (ついはい, tsuihai) means “a Twitter addict; who can’t resist posting/checking a tweet every second”. It’s short for ツイッター廃人, where ツイッター is “Twitter” and 廃人 (はいじん) describes (often in a self-deprecating manner) those who are addicted to something way too much, such as social media and online games, e.g. ネトゲ廃人 means “Internet/online game addict”. It’s also used to describe those who have no motivation for life and spend time doing nothing, like hikikomori. The kanji 廃 in 廃人 generally means “waste/abolish”, used in 廃墟 (はいきょ, “abandoned building”), 廃止 (はいし, “abolish“) and 廃車 (はいしゃ, “scrapped car”).
* Note that originally 廃人 is a derogatory term for people who suffer from their disability/illness and cannot live a socially/mentally healthy life. However, since this term is derogatory and discriminatory, it is rarely used in this sense nowadays (except when talking about the state of mind/mental conditions of people who suffer from drug use disorders; but this is also rarer than the slang usage).
FF外から失礼します (FF gai kara shiturei shimasu)
FF外から失礼します (FF gai kara shiturei shimasu) is a phrase used when one replies to a tweet of someone that he/she is not following or followed by. Here, “FF外から” literally means “from outside of your Followers/Following”, and 失礼します means “Excuse me”.
While some people use this phrase to sound polite, many people actually regard it as redundant and rather annoying (particularly because some people write クソリプ right after this phrase), so you don’t really need to use this yourself on Twitter.
嘘松 (usomatsu)
嘘松 (usomatsu) means “a post on social media (esp. Twitter) where one shares his/her seemingly fabricated or embellished story to gain lots of likes and reactions”. It is said 嘘松 often starts with え、ちょっと待って (“What, wait a minute”) to make it sound like it just happened (however, since this line has become infamous, 嘘松 writers may avoid using it these days)
Note that this term is far more slang than the others, and is usually used in a very mocking way.
リアタイ (riatai)
リアタイ (riatai) stands for “real time” and リアタイ(+する) means “to watch something (e.g. TV shows, sports matches) in real time (and optionally tweet about it)”.
フォロバ (foroba)
フォロバ (foroba) stands for “to follow back”.
ファボる (faboru)
ファボる (favoru) means “to like a tweet” and ファボ comes from the English word “favourite”.
リムる (rimuru)
リムる (rimuru) means “to unfollow”, where リム comes from the English word “remove”.
リツイ (ritsui)
リツイ (ritsui) is short for “retweet”.
リプ (ripu)
リプ (ripu) is short for “reply”.
See also
My Twitter Account
Leave a Reply