Netflix started out as a proper noun – name of a brand.
Netflix has undergone ‘verbification,’ like modern lexis often does. (Google turned into ‘googling’).
When Netflix and Chill was first coined as an official phrase, it literally meant to watch Netflix and chill out. It was a verb phrase, omitting the ‘to watch’ Netflix and chill out.
It is still a verb phrase, but now it means to have sex. The Urban Dictionary now offers no alternative definition. They say this:
So how did ‘Netflix and Chill’ change its connotations?
Who changed it? How did it spread?
I tried to find a ‘meme’ shared by Netflix from the OG (original) postings in 2015–2016, since memes were an influencing factor in subverting the phrase ‘Netflix and Chill’.
It turns out that the semantic shift has been so great – and social media has fuelled the (now sexual) phrase so widely – that searching for memes resulted in my newsfeed presenting numerous (mainly nude) invitations from social media users. Should’ve known that.
No doubt, the process has been a delight to Netflix … because doesn’t sex sell?
Other companies latched on to the phrase – even better for Netflix’s marketing strategy (!)
And so Netflix and Chill became widely known as a code-word.
A verb phrase with connotations.
A trend, if you will:
To Netflix and Chill.
