喷子

What does 喷子 mean?

喷子不可怕，就怕喷子有文化: flamers are not scary, a flamer with culture is. That is the classic Chinese verdict on 喷子, the person who does flaming professionally. The verb is 喷, to spray, which gives you 别喷我, don't flame me, and 被喷, got flamed. Every community breeds them, and Chinese servers industrialised the species the moment voice and text chat became standard in competitive play. The lobby flamer, the forum warrior and the all-chat philosopher are one animal in three habitats.

Where does 喷子 come from?

口水战, the saliva wars of the early-2000s BBS flame-war era, is where 喷 first acquired its abusive sense, showing up in phrases for hurling verbal attacks. The noun 喷子 crystallised later, as gaming came to dominate the 2010s. MOBAs handed the species its ideal habitat: all-chat, team voice and post-game lobbies all at once. Today the word covers anyone whose main contribution to a match is chat damage.

How to use 喷子

• 别理他，他就是个喷子。
  Bié lǐ tā, tā jiùshì ge pēnzi.
  Don’t engage — he’s just a flamer.
• 打得菜还不让说，喷子吧你。
  Dǎ de cài hái bù ràng shuō, pēnzi ba nǐ.
  You play like trash and can’t take a word? Who’s the flamer now?