Copium Meaning Explored: What Does The Word ‘Copium’ Mean on Twitch?

Copium has origins that can be traced back to 2003 when the word first appeared as the title of an album by Keak da Sneak. It was a word that went unnoticed for well over a decade, never even entering circulation before it became a popular meme and a common term used on Twitch. It was in 2016 that the modern-day word first surfaced, and since then, it has become a term regularly used on platforms like Twitch. Let’s find out what gives copium meaning on these digital platforms.

What Does Copium Mean on Twitch?

Image Credit: Know Your Meme

As a meme term, copium is a satirical term used by ‘online personalities’ on platforms like Twitch and Reddit. It’s an amalgamation of two terms: ‘cope’ and ‘opium’, and it’s a joke term used to describe a fictional drug that one consumes after suffering a loss, defeat, or disappointment. For example, you could lose seven games of Valorant back to back, and your viewers might suggest that you should consume a hearty dose of copium.

Copium on Urban Dictionary is defined quite clearly:

‘A metaphorical opiate inhaled when faced with loss, failure, or defeat, especially in sports, politics, and other tribal settings.

The effects of Copium include, but are not limited to: extreme rationalizations for the defeat, outlandish theories of conspiracy supposedly perpetrated by the opposing side, extreme rage directed at the other side, unconvincing allegations of fraud and abuse in the system, and rejection of the system as a whole.’

To give copium meaning and apply a more visual representation, it was connected to the popular meme character, Pepe. From 2018 onwards, Pepe began appearing in images where he was fitted with a face mask that was directly feeding him copium from a nearby tank. In these images, Pepe was quite clearly distressed and in dire need of the copium.

On Twitch, and more commonly in the world of esports, it’s often said that supporters of a ‘bad team’ are high on copium. They’re remaining firm in their support of a losing team, so they must be inhaling copium to help them… Well, cope. Today, the copium meme is one of the most common sights in any Twitch chat.

Hopium Meaning: What Does the Word Mean?

Hopium is very similar to copium, in that it’s a meme word that shouldn’t necessarily be taken seriously. While copium is used in a situation where someone needs to ‘cope’ with something, hopium is a term used to mock ‘false hope’ or irrational optimism. It’s a term that has some foundation in the cryptocurrency community, with crypto fans hodling on to dying currencies being accused of consuming hopium.

Ultimately, both the copium meaning and the term ‘hopium’ are joke terms. They can apply to many different games as well, so if you see ‘New World copium’ or ‘Genshin copium’ trending, it’s perfectly normal. As this is a very dynamic term, it can be used in almost any vertical – politics, finance, crypto, gaming, and so on. Unfortunately, absolutely every person on Earth can be put in a position where ‘copium’ might be necessary.

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