"Alex Lugger, 32, a boat marketer in Springfield, Mo., said that she self identifies as a bit cheugy.... 'We were basic in our 20s and now we’re cheugy in our 30s'...."

"Cheugy is just the latest in a long line of niche identifiers that have gained traction on the internet, where people relentlessly categorize highly specific archetypes in starter pack memes and videos. It’s no coincidence that cheugy gained traction on TikTok, a platform that has functioned as an escape from Instagram’s once dominant aesthetic, which is the pinnacle of cheugy.... [W]hat is and isn’t cheugy is highly subjective and changing quickly. 'It’s really easy to identify cheugy things on TikTok because TikTok is so fast paced and there’s so many trends that come and go.... '... 'I think millennials have noticed that some things we used to consider cheugy are coming back in style and aren’t cheugy anymore... When I was first introduced to the word in 2015, low rise jeans were cheugy. Now, six years later, low rise jeans are back in style and I don’t think they’re cheugy anymore.'"

Yeah, I'm thinking the word "cheugy" is itself cheugy, because why am I reading about it in the New York Times — in "What Is 'Cheugy'? You Know It When You See It. Out of touch? Basic? A new term to describe a certain aesthetic is gaining popularity on TikTok"? 

It means out of style — recently in style. It reminds me of the 1950s-era insult "so last year" — as in, "That dress is so last year." You have to have cared about style to have tried that item in the first place, and now you've stuck with it too long. Just don't care in the first place, and you'll never have to worry about cheuginess.

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ADDED: I certainly hope the NYT checked its sources, because remember when it got hoaxed about Grunge slang? They need to be careful they're not cob nobblers in the tom tom club. Such a harsh realm!