What Does YOLO Mean?

If you've seen the term YOLO on social media and wondered what it meant, here's all you need to know.

YOLO is an acronym for You Only Live Once.

YOLO is similar to the Latin carpe diem (seize the day), meaning to live life to its fullest extent, even embracing behavior that carries inherent risk.

YOLO is believed to have gained in popularity in 2011, when Zac Efron showed off a YOLO tattoo on his arm and Drake who planned to release a 2011 joint mixtape titled YOLO along with American rapper Rick Ross.

From there, we can cite numerous examples from before and after those times, but Drake and Efron are most likely the reason you hear the acronym YOLO.

What might surprise you is who owns the YOLO trademark. A Fort Lauderdale restaurant called YOLO has held the trademarks since 2010. The menu seems upscale (oysters, duck, octopus, fresh fish, martinis, wines). They obviously don't want to be associated with the internet acronym; otherwise, the YOLO burger they sell should be a heart attack between two buns.



In 2021, YOLO became a popular word with the wallstreetbets community on Reddit who used YOLO to describe spending all of your money on high-risk stocks or stonks like Gamestop.

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