Social media is overflowing with acronyms and slang, and every day more of them join the roaster. With the popularity of social media on the rise, these slangs are finding themselves in normal real-life conversations. It has become important to stay up-to-date on the different terms. Understanding the real meaning of these slangs or acronyms has become important if you wish to properly communicate our actual meaning.
If you have been using social media or the internet in general, you might have come across the word “sus”. It seems like something or someone is always “sus”. But what is the meaning of Sus? Where did it come from?
meaning and Origin
“Sus” is a short form for suspicious or suspect. It can mean either depending on the context or it could mean both at the same time. If something or someone is “sus,” then Sus meaning is that they are seemingly dishonest or untrustworthy. It can either be a noun or an adjective, hence can be used to describe both a person or a thing or a situation.
The surge in the popularity of “sus” is a relatively recent phenomenon but the term itself has been in use for decades. It was used to describe untrustworthy things long before the internet. Historically, it was used in the UK to refer to a law nicknamed “sus law”, which allowed arrests based on mere suspicion. The idiom “suss out” has been in use for decades to describe obtaining the truth from someone. It was made popular by the crime and detective shows aired on television.
Even the online use of “sus” is not recent. It became a part of the Urban Dictionary, which is an online slang repository, in 2003. So, it has been in use for quite some time but what made it so special now?
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The Rise of Sus
The reason behind this sudden surge in the popularity of this slang is all thanks to the viral multiplayer video game called “Among us”.
“Among us” is a cooperative multiplayer game launched in 2018 that became one of the most popular games of 2020. Among us is quite similar to other classic party games like Werewolf and Mafia. It takes heavy influence from Mafia as well as the science-fiction horror film The Thing. It is set on a spaceship, where the crew members are working together to identify the imposters among them and trying to vote them out.
The biggest reason for the success of the game was many prominent internet personalities, public figures, and celebrities streaming the game on online platforms like YouTube and Twitch. These streams actually made the word “sus” popular. Players would often refer to the possible imposters as “sus”, making judgments based on various factors like discussions among themselves or by finding inconsistencies in their stories.
The popularity of Sus rose with the popularity of Among Us. Soon, the game started to make its way to the video-sharing app Tiktok. It became very popular in the memer community making it one of the most popular slangs on the internet.
Sus meanings on Tiktok
“Sus” became popular on this video-sharing app when the users became suspicious of a viral story or a claim. The word also made an appearance in multiple viral songs of TikTok that people loved to lip-sync along with. Rapper Cochise song Hatchback played a major role in making this slang widely popular on the app.
Sus as A Slang
Slang is a type of very informal language that is restricted to a particular context or group of people. “Sus” as slang has garnered massive popularity outside Among Us or video games in general. It now appears everywhere from tweets to the comment sections of the YouTube videos which has nothing to do with Among Us and videogames.
If you want to use the word “sus”, you may say “That’s sus” or while referring to a person you may say “You’re sus” or “He’s sus”. It can also replace the word suspicious itself. You can call a suspicious-looking bag on the train “sus” or a spam email that will make you are a billionaire overnight as “sus”.
Hope I was able to explain to Sus meaning flawlessly.
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