Slang dictionary
retoast
[ree-tohst]
What does retoast mean?
A retoast is content (meme, picture, video, etc.) that has already been posted on social media. Retoasting is the action of posting, sharing, or linking to previously posted content.
Where does retoast come from?
Retoast plays on repost and re-toast, or toasting a piece of bread again, such that it’s overdone. The term appears online as early as 2008 in the London Fixed-Gear and Single-Speed cycling forum, where a user comments “sorry if retoast” about a link to a Daily Mail article that may have already been shared.
Vin diesel and helium: Hahaha i found this funny so enjoy and im really sorry if its a retoast http://t.co/3zTVntE7 @funnyvids
— Luuk (@funnievids) October 14, 2011
The term spread to other online sites like Funnyjunk in 2009 and Twitter and Reddit in 2010. Especially on Reddit, the opposite of a retoast is OC (original content). By 2011, the construction “sorry if retoast” was an established convention before posting content that may already be old news to other internet users.
Photo: nineties-nickelodeon: How to repost o retoast? :P http://tumblr.com/xjyci0myy
— Diego Agudelo 🌐 (@DiegoAgudeloS) July 1, 2010
Examples of retoast
Who uses retoast?
Retoast is used on online forums or social media, both as a noun (a retoast) and verb (to retoast), though its currency appears to have dropped off around the mid-2010s.
It can be used to signal you’re not sure if a piece of content has been shared on the site before …
Might be a retoast 🌚 pic.twitter.com/PYuQb94hjz
— TR-8R (@officialTR_8R) January 3, 2016
… or to indicate you are sharing some improved version of content you already posted …
hey I got a better picture of it, retoast pic.twitter.com/GgueWjNVyp
— Tomas (@l0rdxenu) June 4, 2014
… or simply want to re-share content because you enjoy it, even at the risk of seeming repetitive or annoying.
I had to retoast this cuz it is me in every fibre and being pic.twitter.com/KIY45twgQp
— Pamalam (@Pamalela) October 14, 2016
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of retoast like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of retoast that will help our users expand their word mastery.