A friend held a controversial opinion about something, which he shared with me on WhatsApp. He insisted he wasn’t being an edgelord. A what? I took this to be a typo, a typo that happened to suit him quite well. But he claimed an edgelord was an actual thing. He defined it as a person who specialises in edgy opinions, especially if they don’t really believe them.
I checked with a few people who are more across the ways of the world than I seem to be these days: my daughters, a neighbour, an on-trend colleague or two. Blank looks all around. “Sounds dirty,” said one of my BBC colleagues. Then I asked one of my handlers at the Guardian, who not only knew the word but also failed to hide their surprise that I hadn’t. Which just goes to show that this publication is indeed at the cutting edge of things, even if some of its writers need educating.
