なう［乙～スラ（２２）］

Fuga · November 18, 2024, 12:55am

Hey Everyone!

みんなはちゃんと体調管理してる？俺はちょっと風邪っぽいかも。みんなは気をつけてね！手洗い、うがいを忘れずに。

Today, we will be covering…

なう

Any guesses on what this one means?

Hint: Don’t think too hard.

If you guessed ‘now’ you are correct!..At least mostly correct.

Before we start discussing why you are mostly correct, let’s start out with the origin story.

Origin

Although this seems like a 2ch slang, this was not started on a 掲示板. This word gained popularity when 梅崎健理 (うめさきけんり) tweeted using なう. When he first tweeted using なう, he was a a high school student and was known on twitter as うめけん. Although he was just a high school student, he had a whopping 30,000 followers at the time, and because of this, なう spread throughout the internet like wildfire.

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The fact that one of his follower was 孫正義 (そんまさよし), CEO of Softbank, helped since he was also one of the followers that used なう in a tweet (which was later picked up by traditional media). Due to these reasons, なう was one of the top ten words in the 流行語大賞 (buzzword award of the year).

なう

Earlier I mentioned that this word derived from the English word ‘now’, but unlike the English word now, this has an additional nuance. Although なう is just ‘now’ written in hiragana, it is used just like how 「今〇〇している」・「今〇〇にいる」.

Examples:

ディズニーなう

At Disney land right now.

カフェなう

At the cafe right now

Since なう has the nuance of 「今〇〇している」・「今〇〇にいる」, it is simply attached to a word that describes a place or an activity that you are in the middle of. However, there are people that use 今 and なう in the same sentence. Although it sounds unnatural and redundant after knowing the meaning and nuance, it is not considered ‘wrong’ since it is just slang.

Example

今向かってるなう

I am heading there right now.

今彼女と食事なう。

Eating with my girlfriend right now.

Examples with furigana

今（いま）向（む）かってるなう

I am heading there right now.

今（いま）彼女（かのじょ）と食事（しょくじ）なう。

Eating with my girlfriend right now.

I don’t know about y’all, but that looks very weird to me, but this is how people used it.

死語？

Although this slang is relatively new, just like many other slang, this one is considered a 死語（しご）(obsolete language) already by many younger people. However, you will hear and see it used in various places on the internet.

It is said that one of the reasons why people stopped using it + consider it a 死語 is because it was not ‘cool’ enough.

What about it was not ‘cool’?
It didn’t sound リア充 enough!

The reasoning behind this is that if you are a true リア充, you’d be too busy living in the moment to be on your phone making updates to your friends or followers.

As people strayed away from なう, the younger crowd dipped their feet in other English words like わず (was), だん (done), and うぃる (will).

As mentioned above, なう was not ‘cool’ enough, but the new words わず and だん were considered more ‘cool’ because unlike with なう, you updated your friends and followers after doing all the cool, cool people stuff, instead of using your phone while out with your friends like a ‘uncool’ person.

How was わず used? It was basically used like なう, but in the past form.

This was used with the nuance of 「さっきまで〇〇していた」・「さっきまで〇〇にいた」.

Examples:

彼女と食事わず

Was having dinner with my girlfriend.

デートわず

Just came back from a date.

Examples with furigana

彼女（かのじょ）と食事（しょくじ）わず

Was having dinner with my girlfriend.

デートわず

Just came back from a date.

How is this different from だん?

だん is another word that was used for things that was completed in the past. However the nuance of だん is 「〇〇が終わった」.
Examples

宿題だん

Homework, done.

テストだん

Just finished the test.

Examples with furigana

宿題（しゅくだい）だん

Homework, done.

テストだん

Just finished the test.

As you can tell from these examples, わず has the nuance of ‘was doing…’ and だん has the nuance of ‘just finished…’.

うぃる was another one that was used in around the same time as わず and だん. This one was used with the nuance of「〇〇をする予定がある」・「〇〇に行く予定がある」. Unlike the other ones, this one sounds the most unnatural when used in sentences, at least for me.

Examples:

明日は旅行うぃる

I will go on a trip tomorrow.

明後日は発表会うぃるだからもっと練習しなきゃ。

I am going to be performing the day after tomorrow so I must practice more.

Examples with furigana

明日（あした）は旅行（りょこう）うぃる

I will go on a trip tomorrow.

明後日（あさって）は発表会（はっぴょうかい）うぃるだからもっと練習（れんしゅう）しなきゃ。

I am going to be performing the day after tomorrow so I must practice more.

See, it feels a bit…strange, doesn’t it? To me it just seems…wrong.

Although this word was nominated as a 流行語 in 2010, you will probably not see it used on the internet as often anymore. However, there are people out there that use these words regularly, and there are people that use these 死語 ironically as a joke.

So what do people use now instead?

Believe it or not, people have gone back to using good ol’ Japanese. Nowadays, when people want to share online that they are currently doing something, they will simply say 「今〇〇にいる」or 「今〇〇してる」, and if they want to share that they were doing something, they will say 「〇〇にいた」or「〇〇してた」.

今日の投稿はここまで！みんな、今週も勉強頑張ってね！

Fuga

If you missed the previous posts, you can check them out here!

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