new phone, who dis
- idiom
- Slang
:
nuevo teléfono, ¿quién es?
- Whenever she wants to avoid someone, she jokingly says 'new phone, who dis?'.
Examples
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When my old friend texted out of the blue, I just replied, 'new phone, who dis?'.
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Don't take it personally if I say, "new phone, who dis?"
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I lost all my contacts and kept sending 'new phone, who dis?' to everyone who messaged me.
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I just replied, "new phone, who dis?"
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When my old friend texted out of the blue, I just replied, 'new phone, who dis?'.
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I lost all my contacts and kept sending 'new phone, who dis?' to everyone who messaged me.
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Whenever she wants to avoid someone, she jokingly says 'new phone, who dis?'.
Synonyms
To ask who is texting or calling when you do not know the person
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The words 'new', 'phone' and the interrogative 'who' make the literal sense ('I have a new phone; who is this?') fairly recoverable, but the reduced spelling 'dis' (colloquial for 'this'/'who is this') and the joking/pragmatic use (pretending not to recognize someone or signaling indifference) rely on slang and sociopragmatic knowledge. Because understanding requires familiarity with informal texting register and the pragmatic implication, it is not fully transparent to an average B1 learner.
Etymology
New phone, who dis comes from the picture of someone with a brand-new phone and no saved contacts: they might text new phone or ask who dis when an unknown number messages. One popular story says people began using this line to 'pretend not to know someone' or show they are not interested, so today it's used as a joking way to avoid or playfully ignore someone.