About

Ontas? is a portmanteau of the Spanish language phrase "¿Dónde estás?" ("Where are you?" in English), which is sometimes used to proposition a person for sex, in a similar way to "Netflix and Chill", and is often followed by the phrase "Te pago el Uber" ("I'll pay for the Uber" in English). In April 2019, the term was widely circulated online with the rise of the "Ontas Challenge," a social media game in which people would send the question as direct messages (DMs) to celebrities.

Origin

According to /r/OutOfTheLoop^[2] Redditor inadaptado, the term "ontas" originated in Mexico as a "euphemistic way of asking for sex." According to Twitter user @DRLOVEMX,^[4] the term is typically used by "weird horny guys looking for a quick hook up," and is followed with offers to send an Uber driver to pick them up. On April 16th, Twitter user @DimeAlets^[1] (Alex Ruiz) tweeted a screenshot of a DM conversation with actress Lily Collins, in which she replies to his "Ontas?" message with "What does 'ontas' mean?" (shown below). Over the next 72 hours, the tweet received more than 24,600 likes and 3,600 retweets.

Spread

On April 18th, professional soccer player Sergi Roberto tweeted^[6] "Ontas? 🤣," gathering upwards of 24,800 likes and 4,300 retweets within 24 hours (shown below, left). Meanwhile, actor Drake Bell posted a tweet^[5] with the word, accumulating more than 201,200 likes and 53,200 retweets within the same timeframe (shown below, right).

That day, electronic music artist Steve Aoki tweeted^[3] "Why is everyone saying ontas?" (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 20,000 likes and 4,300 retweets.

Meanwhile, the Spanish language news site Erizos^[7] published an article about the word's spread on social media, attributing much of its sharp rise to the Alex Ruiz DM conversation with Lily Collins. On April 19th, Ebaum's World ^[8] published an article titled "'Ontas?' Meme: What The Hell Does That Even Mean?"

Search Interest

External References