We hope by now you’re over your post-holiday social jet lag because it’s time for a new batch of buzzworthy words. This week: an Ice Cube-coined meme; being really into numbers; and passive aggression on the sidewalk.

bye Felicia

“Basically it’s me saying bye Felicia to the distractions, the people and things that aren’t supposed to be in my life right now.”

Hugh McIntyre, “American Idol Winner Jordin Sparks Talks New Music And Ditching…Certain People,” Forbes, December 14, 2014

Bye Felicia is a way of dismissing or leaving behind unwanted people or “distractions,” as Jordin Sparks puts it. The saying comes from a quote in the 1995 movie, Friday, and according to Know Your Meme, was first submitted to the Urban Dictionary in 2008. The term regained popularity in early 2014.

Bye Phylicia, a play on this meme, emerged when Phylicia Rashad defended former co-star Bill Cosby against sexual assault allegations.

datasexual

“Since then, QS has become a tech curiosity, alternately heralded as real-life cyborgs and condemned as ‘datasexuals’ whose embrace of self-surveillance will usher in a dystopian future.”

Anne Helen Peterson, “Big Mother Is Watching You,” BuzzFeed, January 1, 2015

A datasexual is, according to Word Spy, someone “who obsessively collects and shares data about his or her own life to improve self-knowledge and embellish self-presentation.” Word Spy’s earliest example is from 2012.

QS, by the way, stands for Quantified Self, “a group defined by its interest in self-tracking and subsequent discoveries, with membership in the thousands that now spans the globe.”

manslamming

“It’s a phenomenon that perhaps we could call manslamming: the sidewalk M.O. of men who remain apparently oblivious to the personal space of those around them.”

Jessica Roy, “What Happens When a Woman Walks Like a Man?” New York Magazine, January 8, 2015

Manslamming, which could be perpetrated by either men or women, is the act of failing to make way on a crowded sidewalk and, as a result, slamming into someone coming from the opposite direction.

Manslamming might be considered a micro-aggression, a non-violent yet aggressive interaction between different races, cultures, or genders. But because of the physical contact, passive-aggression might be more accurate.

Narcissistick

“So many people were fighting for space to take selfies with their long sticks — what some have called the ‘Narcissistick’ — that it looked like a reprise of the gladiatorial battles the place once hosted.”

David Carr, “Selfies on a Stick, and the Social-Content Challenge for the Media,” The New York Times, January 4, 2015

A Narcissistick, a blend of narcissist and stick, is another word for selfie stick, a device that attaches to a camera for optimal selfie photo taking. The belfie stick (God help us) is a device for optimal belfie, or butt selfie, taking.

For more selfie words, check out our post, The Selfie Variations.

(H/t Nancy Friedman)

sidewalkspreading

“If 2014 was the year of Manspreading, let 2015 be the year we call out and conquer Sidewalkspreading.”

Jen Carlson, “Sidewalkspreading, A Pedestrian Problem We Must Call Out & Conquer,”  Gothamist, January 6, 2015

First it was manspreading, now it’s sidewalkspreading. While manspreading takes place on the subway or, presumably, any place that involves people sitting next to each other, sidewalkspreading takes place on the sidewalk or any narrow place where people walk.

The idea is the same however: taking up more space than one is allotted. In the case of sidewalkspreading, two or more people spread across the sidewalk instead of falling behind one another, and refuse to move despite oncoming foot traffic.

Sidewalkspreading may result in manslamming (see above).