Blinker (Slang)

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About

Blinker is a weed slang term that defines when the light on a dab pen starts blinking, indicating that the pen has been smoked for a long time and therefore has made the smoker highly intoxicated. The term is also used in relation to vaping e-cigs like Juuls. The phrase "hitting blinkers" and "double blinkers" were popularized in late 2022 and early 2023, predominantly due to YouTuber and streamer Fulcrum. The term "blinker" dates back as far as 2017.

Origin

Currently, the first known use of the term "blinker" surfaced on the website X^[1] on April 21st, 2017, by the user @Derekgill77, who referenced a friend named Mason, writing, "Mason just hit a double blinker with two phixs 😂," in reference to the slang term "phix"^[2] for an e-cig (shown below).

Going into early 2018, the term "blinker" became increasingly commonplace on X,^[3]^[4]^[5] however, viral usage of the term hadn't surfaced yet. On June 14th, 2018, Urban Dictionary^[6] user X23Hailway added the first definition for "blinker" to the website, writing, "When you're smoking a Wax Pen, and take a hit so long, the button starts to blink," receiving roughly 1,100 likes in five years (shown below).

Spread

Despite a 2017 origin, viral usage of the term "blinker" didn't surface until 2019. For instance, the first-known viral usage of "blinker" as a quote retweet posted by X^[7] user @Chinoasf on August 11th, 2019, who said, "Hit a blinker BITCH," gaining roughly 12,100 likes in four years (shown below).

Predominantly starting in 2022, usage of "blinker" became commonplace on TikTok. For instance, an early, viral usage was posted by TikToker^[8] @agnb.soloc who posed the scenario, "before and after i hit a 'blinker,'" gaining roughly 1.4 million plays and 197,200 likes in one year (shown below, left). On September 25th, 2022, TikToker^[9] @steelyliv posted a similar video, additionally referencing the humorous antithesis of a blinker called a "stinker," gaining roughly 323,500 plays and 22,400 likes in 11 months (shown below, right).

Fulcrum's Usage

YouTuber Fulcrum started posting videos to YouTube^[10] as early as 2019, however, he wouldn't go viral for his streaming content until late 2022. He'd later become known for his frequent usage of the slang term "blinkers," evident in videos from as early as 2021, in which he'd hit blinkers in public (examples shown below). He also started the term Blinker City.