Ouid

About

Ouid (pronounced "weed") is an algospeak slang term for marijuana. The term was popularized on social media websites during the late 2010s and early 2020s, particularly TikTok, as a way to discuss cannabis without attracting algorithmic censorship. It has also led to memes about "ouid" being slang for French cannabis.

Origin

On February 7th, 2018, user trumanblvck submitted the first definition of "Ouid" to Urban Dictionary that defined it as a slang term for cannabis.^[1]

Spread

The term was widely picked up in the cannabis community over the following years, as definitions and explainers for the term appeared on cannabis-focus websites including cannabistutorials^[2] and Leafly.^[3]

The term grew prominent on social media in the early 2020s. On March 18th, 2021, TikToker @morethanenough posted a TikTok that used the "ouid" spelling, gaining over 15 million views in two years (shown below, top). On April 16th, YouTuber Devin Lytle posted a video discussing if she smoked too much "ouid," gaining over 63,000 views in two years (shown below, bottom).

It appears as though TikTok disabled the "#ouid" hashtag at some point after the term grew in popularity. As of April 2023, the hashtag "#ouid" will not link to other TikToks.^[4] Some have attempted to circumvent this by pairing "#ouid" with emojis.^[5]

The term remains popular on Twitter, where users will commonly discuss cannabis with the term (examples shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References