Ksos (Slang)

About

Ksos is a word that when typed as a comment on TikTok causes the site to warn the user against posting it. The discovery of this feature led to multiple videos on the app that attempted to bait users into trying to type "ksos," as well as significant confusion about what the word means in a slang context and why it causes a warning to appear. While it's unclear why TikTok warns users about posting the term, it could be because "ksos" can be short for "cassos," a French insult for someone poor and stupid, or "Kos Umak," an Arabic curse word.

Origin

It's unclear exactly when TikTok users discovered that commenting "ksos" would cause the site to warn against posting the phrase, but an early example video of a user demonstrating the warning was posted by user @Ahmetinio^[1] on August 8th, 2023, gaining over 740 likes in eight months (shown below).

Spread

On December 7th, 2023, TikToker people.who.know2^[2] posted a video suggesting "ksos" meant something vulgar to Arabic speakers, gaining over 7,900 likes in five months (shown below, left). This led some commenters to speculate it could mean "kos umak," which is a severe Arabic curse word,^[3] and that's why it prompts a warning on TikTok.

Another possible reason TikTok may warn against typing "ksos" is that it could be short for "cassos," which is a French insult to call someone poor and stupid, similar to how "trailer trash" is used in English.^[4] On September 10th, 2023, French user fandeemma77^[5] posted a video calling someone the definition of a ksos, gaining over 70 likes in seven months (shown below, right).

While it remains unclear why TikTok warns users against posting ksos, there was a significant uptick in videos attempting to bait commenters into trying to post "ksos" and refusing to explain what it meant in March and April 2024.

For example, on March 19th, 2024, TikToker 022924darencorreo^[6] posted a TikTok in response to a user asking what it meant that only showed an illustrated creepy face, gaining over 162,000 views in three weeks (shown below, left). On March 28th, user aarronbasilio08^[7] posted a video imploring users to comment "ksos" if they're "not scared," gaining over 54,000 likes in two weeks (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References