Are You 'Oomf'? This Gen Z Affectionate Slang Is Taking Over.

“I have not seen oomf in a while. I think they are mad at me...”

If you understand what this sentence means, congratulations, you’re probably extremely online and know that it stands for “one of my friends.”

For those unfamiliar, it’s a slang term of affection that has recently been popularized online by Gen Z, but has existed for years. On X, formerly Twitter, it has been used as a hashtag to mean “one of my followers” since 2010, according to Dictionary.com.People often use it online to talk about other social media users they interact with.

But oomf, by definition, is not necessarily your one good friend. When you call someone your “bsf” (best friend) or “bff” (best friend forever), your friend has the certainty of knowing they have a close spot in your heart and are treasured by you. But anyone can be oomf, and that’s part of the word’s appeal ― it gives people a way to covertly gossip.

“I recently tweeted...‘Oomf is dating a 32-year old man, and I don’t approve of it.’ I will fully admit I use that to sneak-diss my friends that I can’t fully confront in person,” said Chloe Forero, a 21-year-old content creator based in Naperville, Illinois, who made a popular TikTok video explaining the meaning of “oomf.”

Forero says that she uses oomf more online than out loud, but she and her friends also “use that term in real life. I’ll be like, ‘Oomf is pissing me off.’”

Forero said that if she were in a public place like an elevator and she wanted to continue gossiping with a friend, but not be direct about who she was talking about, she may call them “oomf.” “It’s a joke but it also gets the point across,” she said.

In 2015, when she was 13, Forero said she first encountered the word while reading someone else’s Instagram