tagged

PINTEREST

Tagged (past or participial tense of tag) has meant “to mark something” since late Middle English.

In street art, a tag names an artist’s stylized word, symbol, or moniker, occasionally associated with a particular gang affiliation and often impressively colorful and elaborate. Tagging is often credited to a 1960s Philadelphia high-school student who tagged his name on city walls to get a girl. The practice then took off in New York City in the 1970s–80s, when artist Basquiat notably tagged his work with “Samo.” The term grew in the 2000s to characterize the trademark style of a street artist, such as Banksy’s tag, referring to his use of stencils and focus on social commentary.

On social media, tagging began on Facebook in the late 2000s when users would click a button that looked like a gift tag in order to identify a person in a photograph—that person was then tagged in the photo.

Social-media tagging further spread in the 2010s with the launch of Instagram, where users would tag friends and families in posts by typing the @ sign followed by the username (e.g., @dictionarycom). This was popularized by Twitter and since adopted by Facebook.