Periodt

About

Periodt, or Period't, is a purposely misspelled variation on the word "period," which means to conclude one's thought. The extra "T" is used to both add emphasis as well as mimic certain speech patterns and/or accents. Frequently found in Black Twitter online communities, the word is commonly used in the expression "and that's on peridot."

Origin

While the expression likely has origins offline, the earliest known usage of the phrase was posted, possibly accidentally, by Twitter user @PBCliberal on May 5th, 2009 (shown below).^[1] They wrote, "Churches should pay property tax periodt."

Spread

Over the next decade, the phrase has been used in various contexts online. On September 17th, 2009, Twitter^[2] user @timmeehan666 used it as an example of speech patterns that they feel negatively about (shown below, left). Between this post and 2018, the phrase would be used in casual conversation on Twitter with people using it to punctuate their points (examples below, center and right).

On December 11th, 2017, Twitter^[3] user @__nicollleeeee tweeted the first available use of the expression "and that's on periodt" to express a statement of homophobia (shown below). They wrote, "If yo girl look like a Man.. u gay and that’s on PERIODT."

On February 9th, 2018, singer Premadonna used the word as the caption to an Instagram post.^[4] The post received more than 12,000 likes in about one year.

On May 15th, Urban Dictionary ^[5] user DADDASF10 defined the word as "Something a dumb bitch would say." However, it would not be properly defined until October 20th, 2018 by Urban Dictionary^[6] user Peachalpha who wrote, "When you finish a sentence and you know you were damn right. Old generation would say “and that’s final” but of course us being the most say “PERIODT” you could also say “PERIODT no tampon/pad” if you also stating some knowledge or facts." The post received more than 250 upvotes in less than one year (shown below).

On July 30th, 2018, Redditor ^[7] XxSniperman1 asked the /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit, "Why are people writing 'moodt' and 'periodt' instead of spelling it normally?" Redditor LavenderSunny responded, "Adding t (usually uppercase) to a word that ends with a d is somewhat common in gay and drag culture / slang. I've seen it usually used as 'draggedT', 'slayedT' and so on. Apparently, it comes from AAVE, but it has been used online since a long time ago, usually on pop forums and twitter."

On September 28th, 2018, Twitter user @gIendvIee_ tweeted a video of First Lady Michelle Obama saying "Periodt." The tweet received more than 1,800 likes and 540 retweets in less than one year (shown below).

had to put @MichelleObama on to the city girls #PERIODT #WhenWeAllVote pic.twitter.com/vIdYIMPTAq

— sir. (@gIendvIee_) September 28, 2018

The following year, on February 12th, 2019, Twitter user @oneliddoflack tweeted a video with the word as the caption. The post received more than 1.9 million views, 130,000 likes and 51,000 retweets in less than six months (shown below).

“PERIODT” pic.twitter.com/8WU3ckEYG6

— cutegirlgee (@oneliddoflacka) February 12, 2019

In 2019, "Periodt"-related posts began going viral in greater numbers. On April 28th, Instagram user @ricketthompson posted a video with the caption "AND THAT’S ON PERIODT!!!!" The post received more than 3.9 million views and 790,000 likes in less than two months.

The following day, Twitter^[8] user @lovetonyrawrxd posted an image of Captain America with the word placed over the image. The post received more than 7,700 likes and 800 retweets in less than one two months (shown below).

Search Interest

External References