Wojak en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˈwoʊ.d͡ʒæk/
- /-(j)ɑːk/
- /ˈvɔɪ.(j)æk/
- (US) audio
- /-jɑːk/
- /ˈvoʊ.jæk/
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Balto-Slavic *wájas Proto-Slavic *vojь Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂kos Proto-Balto-Slavic *-āˀkas Proto-Slavic *-akъ Proto-Slavic *vojakъ Polish wojakbor. English Wojak From the Internet meme Wojak, a cartoon drawing of a bald man with a wistful or melancholic expression. The original image was posted on vichan, a Polish imageboard, in 2009, and was later reposted to the German imageboard krautchan in 2010 by a Polish user called "wojak"; the username is from Polish wojak (“soldier; fighter”).
Meanings
-
(Internet) A melancholic character representing the powerless everyday man; or, any derived art or character in the crude line-art Wojak style.
From the original manifestation of a wistful look to the meme of two Wojaks hugging with the tag “I know that feel bro,” he has taken on contexts in male-dominated internet spaces that signify a brotherhood of sorts.
2020, Soham Gadre, “Inside the Male-Dominated Meme Hijacked by Lib-Bashing Trumpsters”, in Daily Beast:Owing to their coarsely drawn, unyielding masculine outlines, Wojaks are especially compatible with efforts to channel aggression.
2021, Jeffrey Demsky, Nazi and Holocaust Representations in Anglo-American Popular Culture, 1945–2020, page 112:These figures, which regularly appear as characters in other meme formats, make variants of Doomer (male, female, boy, etc.) one of the most prevalent meme tropes of the early 2020s, with both a vertical reach (as straight copies of the original Doomer format) and a horizontal one (as variants in form, gender, and age, and, since late 2020, race – with Black Wojaks going viral).
2021, Mike Watson, The Memeing of Mark Fisher: How the Frankfurt School Foresaw Capitalist Realism and What To Do About It, page 50:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| woahjack | alternative, humorous | lexicographic | |
| Wojaks | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| wojak | alternative | lexicographic |