little secret: Florida isn’t as different from the rest os the US as people think. it just has a different law about journalistic reporting on police reports than the rest of the country which makes their police blotter easy fodder for hack comedians who don’t know robbing a gas station with an alligator in florida is the same energy as robbing a wawa with a badger in Pittsburgh, but the latter isn’t reported by default
i learned it as sike comes from the swamp reclamation ditches in florida that skateboarders would hang out near. you’d shove someone in the ditch (sike) and say “sike” when you did a real dumb low stakes prank
That is an interesting thought. And y’know, it’s not like English hasn’t had competing spellings for words before.
As long as there’s a valid etymology, I’d treat either as correct. But granted, they can become correct through use even if it does come from a bone-apple-tea situation.
absolutely. there wasn’t any prescribed spelling for anything until i think it was the mid 1800s. and dictionaries are meant to be descriptive of the language as it is, not prescriptive of what it should be
Both “psych” and “sike” are used as interjections to indicate that a previous statement was a lie, joke, or prank, but psych is the original, formally recognized spelling, while sike is a popular slang variant. And yes, “Psych” derives from “psyched out” (to mentally confuse or trick someone).
Millennial here. “sike” is a Bone Apple Tea. It’s the equivalent of those “when you smell his colon” memes (misspelling “cologne”). If you use “sike” I consider you a dumbass; you really should know better.
That being said, it hit just right when the Piranha Creeper said it:
Nice to see sike spelled right for a change.
Is it correct? Doesn’t it derive from “psych out”?
Gen X spelled it sike. We used it a lot, too. This meme is on point.
Gen X here. Well,borderline. I choose which as convenience dictates. Psych is correct.
Now you have me wondering if it was regional, because it was definitely sike in Florida all the way through the '80s.
florida is by default the wrong way to do everything.
little secret: Florida isn’t as different from the rest os the US as people think. it just has a different law about journalistic reporting on police reports than the rest of the country which makes their police blotter easy fodder for hack comedians who don’t know robbing a gas station with an alligator in florida is the same energy as robbing a wawa with a badger in Pittsburgh, but the latter isn’t reported by default
It was a fun place to grow up.
i learned it as sike comes from the swamp reclamation ditches in florida that skateboarders would hang out near. you’d shove someone in the ditch (sike) and say “sike” when you did a real dumb low stakes prank
That is an interesting thought. And y’know, it’s not like English hasn’t had competing spellings for words before.
As long as there’s a valid etymology, I’d treat either as correct. But granted, they can become correct through use even if it does come from a bone-apple-tea situation.
absolutely. there wasn’t any prescribed spelling for anything until i think it was the mid 1800s. and dictionaries are meant to be descriptive of the language as it is, not prescriptive of what it should be
Both “psych” and “sike” are used as interjections to indicate that a previous statement was a lie, joke, or prank, but psych is the original, formally recognized spelling, while sike is a popular slang variant. And yes, “Psych” derives from “psyched out” (to mentally confuse or trick someone).
Millennial here. “sike” is a Bone Apple Tea. It’s the equivalent of those “when you smell his colon” memes (misspelling “cologne”). If you use “sike” I consider you a dumbass; you really should know better.
That being said, it hit just right when the Piranha Creeper said it: