Gyatt or gyat is a term that has been around for centuries, eventually showing up in online spaces in the early aughts. More recently, the term has been spread via popular internet culture and infiltrated middle schools everywhere. The current adaptation of the term gyat refers to the shape of someone’s body or—plainly—a big butt. Gyat is commonly used in comment sections of videos or as body commentary in schools. Middle-schoolers will use gyat as a noun, using variations such as “Level One Gyatt”, “Negative Gyat,” and “Sticking out your gyatt.”

Others might say that gyat or gyatt is an acronym for a variety of different words. Kids report telling their teachers and parents that gyat stands for “girl, you ate that” or “get your act together.” However, other, more inappropriate acronyms like “girl, your a** thick” have surfaced. Below, we take a closer look at the term, its history, and what you need to know as a parent.

Gyat Origin

Although middle schoolers are using gyat to make inappropriate remarks on people’s bodies, the word has a history that stems from African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Gyat has historically been a way to spell out, phonetically transcribe, or represent a specific pronunciation of god or god damn.

The word gyatt first appeared in AAVE as early as the 1700s and has origins in the Black Southern and Jamaican African diaspora. When enslaved people from all over the Caribbean and Africa came to the United States, they were not given a means to communicate with one another and were denied from learning Standard American English (SAE). As a result, they had to teach themselves how to communicate by ear and a dialect formed called AAVE.

AAVE makes use of liaisons, in which the beginning of one word gets connected to the end of another, consonants can get blended and words with similar vowel sounds get merged together. AAVE, like any other dialect, has grammatical rules that guide its usage, many of which are ignored by people who attempt to adopt the dialect. Many terms commonly known as internet slang have origins in AAVE and have been used for decades. Terms like “cap,” “periodt,” and “camp” all have historically been associated with AAVE, and have been convoluted to have distorted—often unrecognizable—meanings. 

Such is the case with the current usage of the word gyatt, which initially was used as an expression of excitement or surprise by the African American community. But how did a word that originated hundreds of years ago get turned into a term your middle-schooler mutters between giggles to their friends?

How Middle-Schoolers Use Gyatt

Teens and tweens have adopted and repurposed the term gyatt to mean a big butt. They use the term as a noun and often in response to someone’s body. It’s typical for kids to litter comment sections of a TikTok with phrases like “Negative Gyat” or "Level 100 gyat” or “I Gyat to See That.” It’s also been reported that kids are using gyat to comment on teacher’s bodies. One person tweeted, “My aunt is a teacher and apparently her students say 'gyatt' every time she bends over."

Gyat vs Gyatt

According to Dictionary.com, gyat refers to someone with a curvaceous body, while gyatt describes a person with a large butt. However, both spellings are used to generally describe a large butt.

What Does Gyat Really Mean?

Gyat really means “god” as in “god damn.” It is used to express excitement, surprise, or admiration. Interestingly, the original meaning of the term also has controversial usage. Though gyat means “god” as in “god damn” it is typically used in the context of making a public remark on someone’s body, which is how it eventually was convoluted to its current usage.

How Gyat Became a Part of Your Kids' Language

Simply put, gyat became a part of your kids language through the internet. Social media platforms like Twitch and TikTok popularized this term among Generation Alpha, and the term boasts 6.5 billion views on TikTok. Gyat was introduced online by various Twitch streamers, including YourRage who first coined the current usage of gyat and KaiCenet who popularized it. When Kai Cenet popularized the term to his over 10 million Twitch followers, which skew on the younger side in comparison to other streamers, it quickly became a funny and cool way to respond to his streams and suddenly gyat was everywhere—even in schools. 

But should a word that has been semantically shifted to represent an oversexualized body part be a part of your child’s vocabulary? Some people argue that the term is simply an innocent TikTok phrase, but it could represent a harrowing future and disproportionately impact young girls, overweight children, and Black/Latinx students. And historically, this group has been oversexualized and unprotected. The current usage of the word gyat, is a form of cat-calling, reducing teens and tweens to their bodies, which creates unsafe spaces for them.

Cat-calling or making public remarks on someone’s body can lead to dangerous situations. In Chicago, a 19-year-old woman was tragically murdered by a man whose cat calls she ignored. It’s a verbal form of sexual harassment and makes people feel uncomfortable and unsafe. Though gyat can be used outside of this context, it’s important to note that this is the most common context of the current usage of gyat.

Misuse of AAVE in Internet Culture

The semantic shift of the word gyat represents a longstanding and complicated tradition with AAVE. The appropriation of the term is another example of how people do not respect or acknowledge the validity of the dialect and the grammar that rules it. Just like any dialect, AAVE has grammar rules that dictate how the language should be used.

According to British linguist Geoffrey K. Pullum, “The majority of English speakers think AAVE is just English with two added factors: some special slang terms and a lot of grammatical mistakes. They are simply wrong about this.” It’s important to note that Black people have historically been discriminated against for the use of AAVE; for example, standardized tests were considered to not be inclusive due to marking down students who use AAVE in their essays.

AAVE is a dialect studied in universities and colleges around the world and people who grew up speaking in AAVE, can tell when it’s being used incorrectly. This issue even ripples into many marketing campaigns as big corporations increasingly use AAVE to sell products and appeal to an unassuming audience. Meanwhile, the creators of the dialect—the Black community, especially the Black queer community—continue to suffer discrimination when using their own dialect. As a result, words that are simply a part of Black culture become meme-fied and appropriated. Words like gyat and other AAVE terms are not internet slang, they have an important history, and kids should know the origins of the words they adopt—perhaps knowing the history would make a difference on if they chose to use it.