Have you ever seen the acronym SUS used online and wondered what it meant? Well, wonder no more! SUS stands for “suspicious” or “suspect” and is often used by people in law enforcement or security to describe someone or something that they are keeping an eye on. However, the word has become more popular lately among teenagers due to the success of the video game “Among Us”, and the rise of TikTok.
Origin of the word SUS
The term “sus” originated in 1824 with the establishment of the “Sus law” in Great Britain. This law gave police an automatic warrant to arrest anyone who looked suspicious or was suspected of committing a crime. However, this law ended in 1981 during the “Scrap Sus” campaign led by Mavis Bes in London when people protested against the continuous discriminative arrests of black people.
In the year 2003, the word first appeared in the Urban Dictionary and was defined by a user, Diego, as a “diminutive of suspect”. The “sus” word has since increased rapidly in popularity since 2020 due to the success of the “Among Us” game. Still, its main meaning hasn’t changed; it is still used to describe something or someone that looks suspicious.
How to Use Sus
Using “sus” is simple. If you want to make a sentence that contains the word “suspect”, or “suspicious”, you can simply use “sus” in their place.
Examples: “That white player is a sus. I don’t like the way he follows me.” Or,
“That black player keeps following me around, he is sus.”
It’s that simple!
As simple and as obvious as it may sound, remember that not everyone knows its meaning. So you may want to be mindful of who you say it to.
Wrapping Up
And that’s it. We believe that the next time you hear or see the word sus on TiTtok or wherever, you should now know what is being said.
