The Mycenaean

Leesville Road High School students are constantly adding new words to their vocabulary. Their new favorite term? Yapping. 

The verb to yap means to talk excessively about something boring or of little importance. If your English teacher is lecturing your class for 30 minutes you might think, “What is he yapping about?” When your friend has been complaining about her ex-boyfriend all week you would call her a “yapper”. 

Tiktok user @damasscuscamo posted a video in 2023 of his dog biting at the air captioned “what is blud yapping about,” which currently has 8.8 million views and 1.2 million likes. Since this viral video, the hashtag #yapping has amassed 24.7k posts on TikTok.

“Yapping is so annoying like what are you talking about? Who asked?” said Kieran Cavana, senior.

Some students do not identify as yappers. Most yappers talk too much about silly things, but others are not so harmless. These yappers are known to be annoying and self absorbed. They only talk about themselves or gossip about other people. 

“Okay maybe I am a yapper. What’s wrong with that?…yappers are a minority. We need yap safe areas,” said Rowan Proctor, sophomore.

Those who do identify as yappers do not see it as demeaning. Yapping may not be intellectual conversation but it builds familiarity and connection between people. Yappers who are funny have a story and include details are entertaining. 

“I’ve been called a yapper…I wasn’t offended…yapping is a talent. Essays are yapping, small talk is yapping,” said Daniel Lee, sophomore.

While many students call each other yappers they also acknowledge that so are they when they are with their friends and family. It turns out everybody is a yapper.