So, as a lexical antidote to the advancing years, and a dismissal of any prescriptivist (aka language police) viewpoint that 'youth-speak' isn't a legitimate part of language change, let's devote the last month of 2019 to a glance at some words that are far more likely to come out of your mouth, or keyboard, if you're under 25.

December already?! Where did the year go? Those of us of a certain age may feel like we've only just popped the fairy lights away and eaten up the last of the frozen turkey leftovers, and yet here we are hurtling towards destination Christmas all over again! Of course there's the warm and fuzzy prospect of some festive fun, a break from work and spending time with our favourite people, but there's also the undeniable fact that 12 months have whizzed by in the blink of an eye, and yes – we're another year older …

1. bare – adverb, quantifier

The young person's take on the word bare has encouraged it to make the leap from adjective with a very specific meaning (i.e. 'not covered') to general intensifier. As a quantifier, it often means 'a lot of', as in Bare people there last night, or as an adverb, 'very', as in Your mate is bare annoying. In truth, this use is not a teen innovation at all, but in fact can be traced back to Jamaican patois, where it has the established meaning 'plenty of'.

2. basic – adjective

If your 16-year-old son or daughter describes your new outfit as so basic, then they're not referring to its stylish simplicity, but rather suggesting that your widely-available clothing choice is uncool. If something is basic, then it's become so mainstream that it's considered boring and unoriginal. I fear that my entire wardrobe is basic.

3. ship – verb

This one makes much more sense if you know its origins – ship comes from the noun relationship. It's an example of what linguists sometimes refer to as a 'clipping', a word formed by removing part of a longer word. If you're a Harry Potter fan and have ever thought that Harry and Hermione ought to be more than just friends, then you're unwittingly 'shipping' them – the word means to want or support a romantic involvement between two fictional characters. Shipping usually relates to the aspirations of fans rather than anything written into the work of fiction itself and it's surprisingly been around for quite a while. One of its earliest uses relates to characters Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in the popular US TV series The X-Files.

words perpetuated on social media have found their way into spoken language scenarios completely outside of the virtual world

4. lit – adjective

It's the past tense of verb light, an abbreviation for noun literature and now dips its toe into yet another part of speech. Following in the footsteps of bad, mint and sick, lit is often used by young people to mean something like 'fun', 'exciting' or generally 'excellent'. In fact this isn't the first slang usage of the word, which meant 'drunk' as far back as the 1910s. Doubtless partly due to the connection between happiness and intoxication, it's recently transitioned into a more general characterization of good times. Here's hoping your Christmas celebrations are lit.

5. low-key – adverb

This one could be useful for all generations. As an adjective, low-key generally means something like 'not attracting attention' as in, a low-key wedding. In teen-speak this is cleverly manipulated into an adverb, which basically indicates: 'I'm saying that I've done something wrong or embarrassing, please be discreet'. For instance: I've low-key forgotten to do my homework = 'I'm telling you that I've forgotten to do my homework, but don't draw attention to this fact'. This neatly-packaged request for secrecy is surely a welcome addition to any person's idiolect – and it could come in particularly handy over the Christmas period.

6. retweet – interjection

This is a personal favourite of mine and another fascinating example of how words perpetuated on social media have found their way into spoken language scenarios completely outside of the virtual world. Just as we now regularly hear interjections like 'OMG' and 'hashtag' in speech, retweet can be used as a response meaning something like 'me too', or 'I completely agree'. So A: I'm really hungry now. B: Retweet (= 'Yes, I'm hungry as well.'). It of course takes inspiration from the verb/noun retweet meaning '(to send) a message that repeats a message sent by another Twitter user'. It's a classic example of conversational economy and a genius use of the word.

7. salty – adjective

Salty has now transitioned from human senses to feelings. It's commonly used in online gaming communities to describe someone who's frustrated or bitter because they've been beaten in a computer game. This sense of salty has in fact been around far longer than you might think, first attested as US slang in the 1930s and meaning angry or resentful in the face of some kind of disappointment. Note to self: don't be salty when Christmas gift-opening reveals yet another pair of socks …

8. spill the tea – idiom

We've been spilling the beans (= telling secret information) for many years, but now it seems there's also the option of spilling the tea. The meaning of this is actually a little less generic than the beans version of the idiom – if someone spills the tea, the information they're sharing is definitely of a sensitive nature, e.g. Why don't you spill the tea on the divorce? In fact tea in this sense is an independent operator and crops up in other contexts to mean simply 'gossip', e.g. I've got tea on their divorce. Though it might seem like a quintessentially British version of the idiom, it's actually from the US, originally used by gay communities in the South Central region. The use of tea relates to the idea of old Southern tea parties where people gossiped behind other's backs

9. stan – verb, noun

The idea of basing new words on proper nouns seems to have seriously captured our imagination in recent times – as reflected in the BuzzWords featured in 2019 – recall Marleying, Goldilocks, Voldemorting … Another example, albeit based on a far more common-or-garden kind of a name, is the new use of stan favoured by younger speakers. As a countable noun, stan denotes an obsessive fan of a particular celebrity and, correspondingly as a verb (often followed by preposition for), the state of being this, e.g. I'm a Katy Perry stan, or I stan for Katy Perry. If you're wondering why stan, then the connection is with the 2000 Eminem song 'Stan', about an overzealous fan. Stans the world over are likely now rolling their eyes at a stream of corny jokes, but hey-ho, at least they've made it into the dictionary.

10. VSCO girl – noun

For the uninitiated we'll start with pronunciation of the first element here, which is 'vis-co'. If like me the first thing you're thinking is: 'What does VSCO stand for?' then the answer is Visual Supply Company, and it's the name of a photo editing app popular with social media users, particularly teenage girls fond of the dreamy tones they can apply to Instagram posts via its filters. A VSCO girl, it seems, is a young woman who dresses in a casual, relaxed style (think oversized T-shirts, barely visible shorts …) and avidly shares this appearance with the world on social media.

Well, I'm certainly no VSCO girl, but it's been good to embrace at least a snapshot of the burgeoning vocabulary of Generation Z. And if anyone says 'Have a great Christmas!' or 'Happy New Year!' in the festive season ahead, at least I can confidently reply 'Retweet'.

by Kerry Maxwell, author of Brave New Words. She also writes materials for Onestopenglish.

Last month …

Read last month's BuzzWord Voldemorting.