# How did salty replace bitter as an adjective for personality?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-salty-replace-bitter-as-an-adjective-for-personality/1022228>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 18, 2025, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-salty-replace-bitter-as-an-adjective-for-personality/1022228 "2025-08-18T18:19:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 11

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-salty-replace-bitter-as-an-adjective-for-personality/1022228/11 "2025-08-18T19:26:24Z")

</div>

> [@FlikTheBlue](#):
>
> ISTM that a few to several years ago, people started using “salty” as an adjective to describe someone who would have previously been described as bitter.

Yes, it did,

> [@Is salty replacing bitter as an adjective to describe that emotion?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-salty-replacing-bitter-as-an-adjective-to-describe-that-emotion/775723):
>
> Some of the younger people in my family use the word salty instead of bitter to describe someone who is feeling bitter. I thought this was something unique to these particular family members until I read an article this morning in which Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliot uses salty in the same way to describe an opposing player. Is this something new that millennials are doing? Have any of you all heard anyone using salty instead of bitter to describe someone who is still upset about…

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-salty-replace-bitter-as-an-adjective-for-personality/1022228)._