Slang Files · 🙄 Dismissals & burns

G33Z3R Slang Files · 19911994

Where did "…not!" come from?

Not!

Means
The opposite of what I just said
Came from
Wayne's World on Saturday Night Live, then the 1992 film
Peak
1992
Still around?
Only as a Wayne's World reference

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The file

A sentence, then a pause, then Not. Wayne and Garth made it the joke of 1992 and it was in every yearbook by June. It predates them by decades but they own it.

The American Dialect Society named it Word of the Year in 1992, which is the most official a joke has ever gotten.

Sources: Wiktionary — Not! · Wikipedia — Wayne's World (film)

Who did you say "Not!" to? Tell us where and when.

The drive, the dance, the heartbreak, the summer. Add a memory of Not!.

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