The teacher made up fake words to mislead the students. Now some people understand.

Gen Z is constantly mixing things up. From fashion to music, they have taken the trends of past generations and made them new.

They even reinvented the language.

Words and phrases like “rizz”, “skibidi rizz”, “bussin”, “do it for the plot” and “gyat” are frequently used in everyday vernacular. To the outside listener, a conversation among Gen Z can seem like a bunch of made-up words.

Now Sam Salem, a millennial high school teacher and comedian, is getting in on the fun. Salem invents Gen Z-sounding slang words intended as gentle mockery toward its Gen Z students. But some of these words have gone viral on TikTok, entering the broader vernacular.

“I think every teacher and anyone who has been around teenagers has had that moment where you hear the new slang words that young people are using, and you wonder: What is going on here?” Salem told Business Insider.

Salem started a series on his Instagram page titled “Enlightening my students with made-up slang words.” So far, he’s posted seven videos featuring made-up words like “pebbles,” “parked” and “Getty.”

Her first video received over 765,000 likes, 9,000 comments, and 383,000 shares. He finds the words himself or thanks to suggestions from his subscribers, then he gets creative with definitions to present them to his students.

“One of the fun things about being a teacher is that students think, ‘Wow, they’re so bad at trying to be relevant.’ It’s like, no, we’re being deliberately lame to make you react that way,” Salem said.

The new slang is really catching on

What started as a personal joke shared between Salem and his supporters is now making its way outside of the schools where he teaches.

On ESPN’s SportsCenter, anchors used Salem’s words in their broadcasts. Even NBA star Bradley Beal used “pebbles” – meaning “easy” – during a press conference.

“I never thought this would be something that students would actually enjoy,” Salem said.

Teaching various middle and high school students in Los Angeles, Salem interacts with a diverse group of students. Even though he doesn’t always look like his students or have the same socioeconomic background, his goal is to make them laugh and build community.

“The reason I got into teaching was because my greatest passion in life was building community,” Salem said. “And I think it’s cool to be able to build a community through social media and then have experiences with stand-up.”

Here’s the Complete List of Fake Salem Gen Z Slang

Comma: Tell me more

euro: I’m not going to let anything that gets in my way stop me

Milkman: Basic

Clip/Cut: positive thing/connotation

Mute: Replace lowkey or in low

Feta cheese : Negative connotation, disintegrates easily

Parked: Boring, over, over

Pebbles: Easy

Terk: Best friend/best friends

Sparse: The opposite of eaten/uncool

Getty: Artwork/beautiful

Oozing: To overdo

Swirled: Mixed/hot and cold

Shots: Nobody is somebody

Remy: This shouldn’t go together, but it does

Carpet: Similar to the ceiling, you don’t believe it. but derives from the word fight

Costco: Built differently or has everything

Jar: If someone says something embarrassing or secret

Scroll: If someone is talking about something you’re not interested in or don’t want to talk about

Floated: When someone is constantly excited about something and it makes you angry and hate what you say.

iPad: used to call someone socially awkward