Sweats & Swots
“Ugh, this kid is so sweaty!” my son exclaimed as he came under attack in some game he was playing. This was a few years ago; my ears perked up and I asked him what he meant. He explained that “sweaty” was a derogatory term for gamers who were trying super hard to win. Such players were referred to as “sweats”.
Recently I read something — can’t remember what — and came across the word “swot”. I hadn’t heard that before, so I looked it up. “Swot”, a dialect variant of “sweat”, is a derogatory word in informal British English meaning “a person who studies hard, especially one regarded as spending too much time studying”.
I wonder if these two meanings evolved independently from each other; that would be super interesting. Know Your Meme traced “sweaty” back to its use among those who played the FIFA game series in 2014. It’s possible that British gamers smuggled “swot” into gaming terminology and it quickly evolved into “sweat”. I’m not sure how common “swot” is in Britain…or if “sweat” is used interchangeably with “swot”. But if I had to guess, I’d say they weren’t related. If any etymologists out there are looking for a challenge…
Tags: language · video games
“Ugh, this kid is so sweaty!” my son exclaimed as he came under attack in some game he was playing. This was a few years ago; my ears perked up and I asked him what he meant. He explained that “sweaty” was a derogatory term for gamers who were trying super hard to win. Such players were referred to as “sweats”.
Recently I read something — can’t remember what — and came across the word “swot”. I hadn’t heard that before, so I looked it up. “Swot”, a dialect variant of “sweat”, is a derogatory word in informal British English meaning “a person who studies hard, especially one regarded as spending too much time studying”.
I wonder if these two meanings evolved independently from each other; that would be super interesting. Know Your Meme traced “sweaty” back to its use among those who played the FIFA game series in 2014. It’s possible that British gamers smuggled “swot” into gaming terminology and it quickly evolved into “sweat”. I’m not sure how common “swot” is in Britain…or if “sweat” is used interchangeably with “swot”. But if I had to guess, I’d say they weren’t related. If any etymologists out there are looking for a challenge…
Tags: language · video games
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