Baby Reindeer has been a hot topic ever since it hit Netflix, and the show’s success could impact our everyday language.
Language experts believe the term “baby reindeered” could easily become a slang term for those being stalked, following in the footsteps of other massive pop culture moments.
Language consultant Tony Thorne, who works at King’s College in London, told The Sun it’s “not surprising” for people to use references from “news, pop culture or entertainment” and turn them into slang words.
“It’s not a complete surprise if some people are announcing that they’ve been ‘baby reindeered’ if they feel – or more probably pretend – that they are being stalked. In fact, I had already recorded ‘doing a Martha’ to describe an obsessive stalker’s activities several days ago,” he said.
Jessica Gunning plays Martha in Baby Reindeer. (Image: Netflix)
Thorne also pointed out that the term “gaslighting” came from the title of the film Gaslight back in 1944. The word is now used to describe an act of deception or misleading another person, making them doubt their own mind. While the word previously was used as a noun, it became widely used as a verb after the film became popular.
The expert did admit that there’s no way to predict if “baby reindeered” will stick around in the long-term though, as “many are soon forgotten”.
Another English language and linguistics expert, Elizabeth Dunne, shed some light on why people turn to metaphors to convey complicated ideas.
“We use language to bond over shared concepts and understanding, and films and TV shows have been a huge global cultural phenomenon for the past 100 years or so, and consequently aspects of them have entered common parlance,” she told The Sun.
“We could easily see the same happened with ‘baby reindeered’.”
Richard Gadd created Baby Reindeer based on his own life experience. (Image: Netflix)
Dictionary.com added a bunch of slang words this year, including ick, bed rotting and girl dinner, so adding “baby reindeered” to our vocab isn’t completely out of the realm of possibility. Let’s revisit in a year and see what happens.
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