Olympic gold medal-winning ice skater Alysa Liu has been influencing teenagers with her striped hairstyle, her unique piercing and her joyous outlook on competition.
Could she also influence teens with her use of slang?
When asked about her competition strategy, the 20-year-old said with a twinkle in her eye, “I feel like my main goal for this competition was to mog … so hopefully I did that.”
But what does “mog” actually mean?
Urban Dictionary defines “mogging” as: “when you get a nasty pump and out-angel another person, making them look little compared to you.”
If that description leaves you more confused that ever, you’re not alone. Keep reading to find out what the slang word actually means.
What does “mog” mean?
Philip Lindsay — a teacher and content creator who goes by Mr. Lindsay and calls himself the “OG Student Translator” — broke down “mogging” online.
“The essence of the word ‘mog,’ ‘mogged’ or ‘mogging’ is to appear more superior to somebody, especially in a physical or aesthetic sense,” he said in his video.
Where does “mog” come from?
Mr. Lindsay tells TODAY.com the word has been used in the past as an abbreviation for the “Alpha Male of the Group” (or AMOG). It was coined by internet groups that promote toxic masculinity.
“Unfortunately its origins are not great,” said Mr. Lindsay in a video he shared on the word’s meaning last year. He noted that “sigma,” “alpha” and “mewing” all find themselves in that same category.
“But fortunately, just like a lot of those other words, it’s been kind of sanitized through social media and the use of it in memes, and so if your kid’s using it, it’s probably more in a harmless or ironic way,” he said.
“It’s good to be aware of its meaning and its origin, because in some contexts, it could be a really insulting and kind of detrimental word to be using.”
What are the “mog wars”?
Though Mr. Lindsay noted that the word has been generally “sanitized,” it’s popularity has been resurfacing do to recent “mog wars.”
In a TikTok he posted on Feb. 21, Mr. Lindsay explained the heated looks-based competition between a handful of male content creators. Essentially, the “mog wars” place more importance on looking good than being a good person.
It “appears fairly harmless because it’s brain rot and it’s slang,” he said, but it “maybe has some underlying things that are not so harmless.”
He continued, “I think that it’s important for us to be aware of the ideals and the virtues that it’s perpetuating in young men who are on the internet.
What did Alysa Liu mean when she said “mog”?
Mr. Lindsay tells TODAY.com that Liu’s use of the word likely had nothing to do with the “mog wars.”
Kids often use the word to refer to physical ability. He gives this example: “If they’re playing football out on the yard, and they both go up for a catch and one of the boys catches it and the other one misses it. It’s like, ‘Yo, I mogged you!'”
Liu, he says, was most certainly using the word in that context.
“The way that she was using that 100% was this idea of like, ‘I’m just going to go out there and be better than everybody else,” he explains. “And looks like she won gold, so she definitely did ‘mog the competition.'”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
