Nate Robinson’s #wordaapp Twitter Tag Becoming Seattle Tradition

Sometime back, former Washington Husky basketball star Nate Robinson began signing off his tweets with “wordaapp.” Huh?

“When I say word aapp It means the same as up I just spell it diff,” he explained to a confused Twitterati.

Robinson, the three-time NBA Slam Dunk Competition champ who serves as an unofficial godfather to the city’s young basketball players, then started turning his signoff into a tag. Other Seattle-area tweeps have followed suit.

Take this from a Denver resident, reminiscing about childhood visits to Tacoma: “I spent my summers gett’n dirty up in HillTop nev’r forget where u come from #WORDAAPP.”

Or from this UW student: “wrote 4/8 pages on India’s education system and how education isnt necessarily a social equalizer and how it affects youth culture #wordaapp.”

Due to some anonymous Internet stumpage, Robinson’s colloquialism has garnered an Urban Dictionary entry. And now–t-shirts!

T-shirt designers Word Aapp Clothing define the phrase as “a ‘Seattle thing’ that is taking over the world.”  That may be a little hyperbolic. For now, #wordaapp use seems confined mostly to basketball fans under the age of 24. But we’re hoping for a breakout.

Here’s a recent Mayor McGinn tweet: “Search Committee announced for new Human Services director.” Couldn’t Mayor McGinn just as easily tweet “Search Committee announced for new Human Services director #wordaapp”? I don’t see why not.

(You can get that Word Aapp t-shirt for $23.99. Here are other models. Nate says don’t do it! They’re fake. He’ll be offering authentic t-shirts soon.)