PMO (Slang)

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About

PMO is an acronym and internet slang term that stands for "Put Me On," meaning to recommend someone something that they end up taking an interest in. Depending on the context, the acronym can also stand for "piss me off" or "pisses me off," which predates the "put me on" variant. The acronym and associated catchphrase became popularized as "put me on" on TikTok in 2022.

Origin

The earliest definition of PMO as "pisses me off" was posted to Urban Dictionary^[1] by Rachels lover on December 20th, 2005. It was used online in this context consistently throughout the 2000s and 2010s on sites like Twitter.^[2]^[3] On July 27th, 2016, Urban Dictionary^[4] user Xxtiti_ramirezxX defined it as "put me on," gaining over 800 upvotes in six years (seen below).

Put Me On – "Yo pmo to that new girl at school, she a baddie."

It is unclear who first used the acronym this way, but the acronym saw consistently increasing popularity in this context over the following years.^[5]^[6]

Spread

PMO in the context of "put me on" became further popularized on TikTok throughout 2021 and 2022, largely in videos and skits about hooking a friend up with someone. For example, on April 10th, 2021, TikToker^[7] @thatkiidant posted a video using the acronym, garnering over 26,000 views in a year. On December 21st, TikToker^[8] @kayda.show posted a video with a friend using the acronym, garnering over 358,000 views in 10 months (shown below).

On October 19th, 2022, TikToker^[9] @trayahh_ posted a video using the caption, "When girls pmo the boys they low key want," garnering over 1.5 million views in five days (shown below). The video then describes, "Like girl I wouldn’t even know this dude exist if it wasn’t for you y would you pmo knowing yu want him." On October 24th, Dexerto^[10] published an article about the term.