Spilling the Tea?

Among the realm of commonly heard slang, “spill the tea” is probably quite high up there. But what does this mean?

Many of you might think that this is word is nonsense, but, just like all of the Gen Z’s slang, it comes from somewhere. 

This is a mashup of “spill the beans” and talking over teatime (an old English tradition). usually when you talk during teatime, it’s to chat. Spilling the beans is to tell a secret. Putting both together essentially makes “gossip”, which is what “spill the tea”means, tea referring to the gossip and spilling it meaning to spread it. How you could use this could be like “Spill the tea, giurl!” or “I got the tea, now I’m ready to spill it!”

Teen slang doesn’t just pop out of thin air, but is rather wisely invented. Just like how we used to say “bite me” and “stop dipping in my Kool-Aid”, our kids are making these colloquialisms and developing a whole culture around it, which is actually seen with almost all new generation. That’s pretty impressive if you ask me!

~ Arianna