Entry · catalog no. 4103
fanum tax
/ /ˈfænəm tæks/ /FAN-um-taks
noun · nationwide · 2020s
✓ Verified
1.
The unofficial toll of handing over a piece of your food to a friend who takes it as their due. By extension, any small cut somebody skims off what's yours.
“I bought wings and my boy hit me with the fanum tax before I sat down.”
Origin & Attribution
Coined on Black streamer Kai Cenat's Twitch channel in December 2022, named for fellow streamer Fanum, who made a running bit of snatching food from Kai and the AMP crew mid-stream. It spread through Black streaming culture and blew up on TikTok in 2023 — where it got filed under generic "Gen Alpha slang," its streaming-house origin rubbed off.
2022
Named on Kai Cenat's Twitch stream for streamer Fanum
2023
Explodes on TikTok, hundreds of millions of views
2024
Absorbed into schoolyard 'brainrot' slang
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
nationwide · 2020s
Spoken by
Black streaming/gaming community, then broader internet
$FANUMTThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Cooling4 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
82/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2022
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Complex — "What Is the Fanum Tax? Meaning Explained" — article
researched
■
+ Cite a sourceKnow Your Meme — "Fanum Tax" — reference · 2023
researched
See also