This week, two puzzles about social media. The first is something new for this column, a language quiz, and below it is the usual fare, a mathematical conundrum.
In the 1990s, I used to write a weekly column in the Guardian about language. Were I to write the column today, one of my first subjects would be Twitter slang. Tweet-speak is a form of constrained writing: necessarily brief, and with a distinctive holler.
Twitter neologisms (Tweologisms?) are often witty, and are certainly baffling if you are not in the in-crowd. The following ten words and phrases, common among certain Twitter cliques, are crossing over into general usage. Under each word or phrase are two possible definitions. Which is the correct one?
STAN
An obsessive fan
A lovable fool, usually accompanied by an old Laurel & Hardy gif
TEA
gossip
drugs
WIG
Abbreviation of wiggle, i.e. a flirtatious comment used to get attention.
Something is so exciting your wig flew off.
OOMF
Laziness
One Of My Followers
LOCAL
Uncool people, who live online in a bubble of hometown pals and are always late with memes
Cool people, who live in the global community and are always the first with memes
YOUR MIND
a term of endearment
an insult
IRLs
Irish girls
In Real Lifes, i.e. the opposite of your Twitter pals
COINS
recognition for your idol
poverty
I FEEL SEEN
When someone says something you can relate to
When someone says something you can’t relate to
SNACK
A beautiful/handsome person
Time out
When I post the answers at 5pm I’ll explain where the words come from and give examples of proper usage.
And now for the puzzle:
A school composed of an equal number of boys and girls has its own social network. When two pupils are connected in this network they are said to be “pals”. Every pupil has at least one pal. Bernardo, who has 32 pals, discovers that all his fellow pupils have a different number of pals. (That is, no two of his fellow pupils have the same number of pals.)
How many pupils attend the school?
I’ll be back with the answers at 5pm UK time, and meanwhile NO SPOILERS! Please talk about your favourite examples of social media slang.
TTFN!
UPDATE: the answers and the solution are now posted here.
I set a puzzle here every two weeks on a Monday. I’m always on the look-out for great puzzles. If you would like to suggest one, email me.
I’m the author of several books of popular maths, including the puzzle books Can You Solve My Problems? and Puzzle Ninja. I also write the Football School book series for children aged 7-13.
Thanks to Twitter for providing the words for the quiz, and to Bernardo Recamán for suggesting the puzzle.
