the.com/poke
A finger jab reborn as a button, because words felt too committal.
means A light jab with a finger or pointed object — or, online, a nudge to someone that skips words entirely.
from Poke traces to Middle English 'poken,' meaning to thrust or prod, likely related to Low German and Dutch words for jabbing or stabbing with something pointed. The same root gives us 'pocket' (a small jabbed-in pouch) and 'poker,' the fireplace tool and the card game's bluffing jab. Its leap to social media — a button with no message attached — just returned the word to its oldest job: contact without conversation.
- origin
- facebook's first ever flirtation feature, 2004
- meaning
- officially undefined, by design, forever
- modern use
- also raw fish salad, unrelated, unbothered
- peak irony
- a feature nobody explained, everyone understood