About

Sextou is a Brazilian Portuguese slang term that refers to the arrival of Friday. The term was created in a song of the same name by the Brazilian group Forró da Pegação in March 2015, being used as an expression to celebrate the start of the weekend. The term also became known in late August 2018 after English-speaking Instagram users used it to publish erotic photos.

Origin

In Portuguese, Friday is "sexta-feira," abbreviated as "sexta." "Sextou" is a neologism obtained by transforming the noun "sexta" into a verb and conjugating it in the third person singular of the past tense.

On March 16th, 2015, the Brazilian group Forró da Pegação released the music video of the song “Sextou” on YouTube.^[1] The music talks about the singer’s struggle through the week until he gathers his friends to party on Friday. The video (seen below) received 3.4 million views in eight years.

Spread

The term was popularized in Brazil along with the song, with a cover^[2] of the song performed by Israel Novaes and Wesley Safadão on October 28th, 2015. The #Sextou^[3] hashtag has accumulated 9.2 million posts on Instagram as of March 2023, being featured in memes and widely used by social media users. For example, on March 17, 2023, Twitter^[4] meme page @meltedvideos posted a crocodile wearing a cap and sunglasses with overlay text “Sextou.” The post (seen below) garnered 51,500 views and 2,500 likes in a week.

SEXTOU pic.twitter.com/Jmv8FYToFJ

— mel (@meltedvideos) March 17, 2023

The slang is commonly used as content for captions every Friday, celebrating the weekend. For instance, the Facebook^[5] account of the TV channel SBT posted a meme with a TV host and the overlay text “I’m thanking God because today is Friday.” The post received 24 likes and 1 share since it was uploaded on April 27th, 2018 (seen below).

Sextou also is a recurring slang term used on TikTok, with the hashtag #sextou accumulating 5 billion views on the platform. The term is used in content like this TikTok^[6] by @luiscunha, shared on April 22nd, 2022, featuring a clip from a show of a character dancing and the overlay text saying “Friday coming while I’m at work.” The video (seen below, left) garnered 202,700 plays 5,700 likes in a year. The popular footballer Ronaldinho also used the slang term in a TikTok^[7] (seen below, right) shared on July 1st, 2022, garnering 36 million plays and 2.2 million likes in a year.

Sextou for Non- Portuguese Speakers Controversy

In late August 2018, Instagram's English-speaking users interpreted the hashtag "sextou" as "sex to u" and began using it to post erotic or sexy photos. As a result, Instagram^[8][9] blocked the use of this hashtag in early September 2018.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References