"Kek": Meaning and background of the online term

If you spend a lot of time on the English-speaking Internet, you've probably already seen the term "kek". Our guide explains what the word stands for and how it came to be so widely used.

Old WoW players have known it for a long time: if you say "kek", you mean "lol".

The Internet is constantly forming new language flowers. "Kek" is even one of the older, long-established examples.

A long gaming history: that's what "kek"

The origin of the word can be found in World of Warcraft. There, players of one faction couldn't (and still can't) understand what players of the other faction write in chat, because the game automatically encodes what is written. The idea behind this was the different languages of Alliance and Horde.

• This auto-translation, however, followed a fixed principle, so it was repeatable for certain words.
• A particularly frequently used word was and is LOL. If this was written by Horde players, Alliance players would get to see "kek" as a result in chat.
• This quickly spread beyond the borders of WoW and soon became part of the online vernacular.

Even today, "kek" is still frequently seen, especially in the English-speaking online space, mostly coming into use with a younger audience, often with gaming references. However, it is also recognized by more mature generations who were active in World of Warcraft at the time. Eine andere Aussage als „lol“ steckt jedoch bis heute nicht dahinter, da dies die klassische Übersetzung ist.