American Speech (Journal)

Adrenaline rising? Patience waning? Gen Z embraces a slang term for familiar feelings.Alejandra Toro was struggling. Everything was going wrong at the same time, she was overwhelmed and she felt as if she was about to have a meltdown. She was crashing out.Ms. Toro, a 30-year-old project manager, documented her “crash out” in a video that has raced to more than 600,000 views, joining the ranks of countless TikTok users who have employed some iteration of the phrase to describe their burst of emotions — and at times, intentional overreactions.“It’s a joking way to explain, like, this could get really bad, really quick,” Ms. Toro said in an interview.There’s no precise definition of the phrase, and both the severity of its meaning and its use cases seem to run the gamut. A fiery confrontation with an ex, an irritated exchange with a parent or a full emotional breakdown can all qualify. But its popularity is undeniable.An entry for the term was recently added to Among the New Words, a dictionary that is part of a quarterly installment of the journal American Speech. It described “crash out” as “a feeling beyond tiredness, a frustration or exhaustion toward something or someone that you throw all care out the window and have a full blown outburst.” (“Crash out” was a runner-up for the publication’s 2024 word of the year — “rawdog” took the title.)Philip Lindsay, a 31-year-old special education teacher and content creator who goes by Mr. Lindsay on social media, said he has heard the phrase used mostly as a signal from students that they’re frustrated.“It’s kind of this forewarning of like, ‘Hey you’re annoying me, I’m going to crash out,’” he said, “or like, ‘This project I’m working on is going to make me crash out.’”

@_alejthegreat LMAO I start tweaking when my makeup doesn’t cooperate 😂 ♬ original sound – Alej ✨ We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More