Coded (Slang)

About

Coded is a slang term used online to describe people or fictional characters when they resemble or show traits that are not associated with their literal selves. Though originally being used in discussions relating to animated characters exhibiting Black traits while not depicted as Black, the term began to see usage primarily whenever something reminds a person of a concept, such as a K-Pop idol being labeled "Golden Retriever Coded."

Origin

Coded was originally born out of the conversation about things being "race coded," which started on Tumblr during discussions about Steven Universe and the gem characters who are meant to be asexual and nonracial since they come from space.

In late 2015 a larger discussion took place within the fandom about the character Garnet specifically, with her being labeled as "Black Coded" by many, leading to the phrase being used numerous times and slowly spreading from there. On September 3rd, 2015, Tumblr user em4realsj^[1] responded to a question on their Tumblr and broke down the discussion on Race Coding (shown below).

On November 19th, 2017, the discussion on Black Coded characters made its way over to Twitter with the user @DJTreG^[2] uploading pictures of different childhood animated characters and declaring that green- and blue-skinned characters were meant to be Black (such as Skeeter from Doug), helping to spark discourse and later adoption of the phrase on that platform (shown below).

Spread

The term, typically used as a suffix or added onto the end of a word with or without a hyphen, slowly grew in usage online and eventually received a definition on Urban Dictionary on August 23rd, 2021, by user Muttemor^[3] who wrote that "coded" meant a something or someone that has stereotypical traits based on race, gender, sex or age. This definition quickly became the most liked for the word, with it receiving over 100 likes in two years (shown below).

Coded started to have its meaning altered in 2023 as it began to be used to more generically refer to things that remind the person of other ideas.

An example of this was uploaded to X on August 19th, 2023, by user @jaekuus,^[4] who uploaded a video of Drake having a fan interaction moment in which he stops what he's doing to complete a finger heart started by the fan. The caption called Drake "Baby Girl Coded" and was meant to mean that Drake is acting similar to the concept of what a Baby Girl Kawaii stereotype would be (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References