If you feel old and out of the loop on learning about oomf, that’s intentional.
Jessica Rett, a linguistics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said that every generation innovates language, and it does so for roughly two reasons: to obfuscate and to innovate.
“They don’t want us to know what they’re talking about,” Rett said. “And it’s really just a way for them to differentiate themselves from older people like me.”
Rett explained that “one of my friends” is also a pseudopartitive in English that removes “the possible assumption that you only have one friend,” which can be particularly important to point out for younger people.
And it’s fun to say, too. Sure, you can just say “one of my friends” to be extra cautious about who you’re talking about, or you can proudly say “oomf.” Its construction is very pleasing. Rett said “oo” is a nice, satisfying long vowel that makes your lips round out when you say it.
“And the end of ‘mf’… I think it sounds like a party in your mouth,” he added. “It sounds really emphatic.”
Because its definition is inherently uncertain, oomf can be as frustratingly vague or as tantalizingly close as you want it to mean. Oomf can be your frenemy, your occasional follower, or a member of your inner circle.
“I could definitely be at my friend’s funeral and be like, ‘Oh my god, oomf died. ’ I would definitely tweet, ‘oomf died crying emoji,’” Forero said, noting that she always writes oomf in lowercase.
Embrace its multiple meanings or be open to trying it out yourself, at least until it falls out of fashion again. “I’d give it a year or two before it hits its expiration date once again,” Forero speculated.
“My number one piece of advice to people of my generation and older is to embrace it and appreciate it for the linguistic genius that it always is,” Rett said. “These young people are unconsciously innovating language and they are modern enough to pull it off.”
Meanwhile: Can oomf share this article please?
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.