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The term weeb belongs to the so-called youth language. And like most terms of this kind, the meaning of the term weeb is quite simple.
Weeb – this is the meaning behind the youth word
The meaning of the youth word Weeb is just as simple as the meaning of most other terms from youth language, which are thrown around in an inflationary manner, especially in social media.
- The term weeb or weeaboo replaces a much older term for what is ultimately the same thing. Sometime during the 18th century, it was considered very chic among the Western educated middle classes to be involved with Japanese culture. As with all other hypes, the interest was usually only of a very superficial nature and only served to supposedly belong to a certain class. The term Japanophilia was used to describe the trend at the time.
- After the euphoria had subsided, the supposed enthusiasm for Japan experienced a new upswing in the 1990s. The reason for this was the emergence of mangas and anime. Fans of these Japanese characters and stories began to throw around isolated Japanese words and find it chic to endow each name with an additional and completely meaningless -sama or -chan.
- In short: The term weeb is used in youth language to describe embarrassing wannabe Japanese. In other words, people who pretend to know something about something, in this case Japanese culture, but in reality don’t have a clue and are merely highly unpleasant with their posturing.
