Outrageously Funny Word Dictionary :: 19 minutes

👉 Okay, alright settle down now! Let’s tackle this… rather delightfully awkward piece of modern vernacular, a phrase I keep bumping into lately. You ask me to define, and honestly, the genesis is just wonderfully baffling. We're talking about, quite simply, "19 minutes."

Now, before you immediately think I’m rambling about some weird, extended-footage porno (and let's be absolutely clear, that would be a legitimate concern—we mustn't assume anything! cough cough ) we actually need to rewind. Historically, and this is where it gets genuinely weird, "19 minutes" started as a very specific kind of... strategic, frankly depressing, countdown in the context of domestic abuse. Basically, it was a shorthand amongst victims. The 19 minutes referred to the roughly amount of time you might reasonably be physically restrained – gagged, bound—before a serious and potentially lethal injury would occur if not immediately addressed. It wasn't some morbid theatrical measure; it was the brutal reality of a desperate attempt at self-preservation. You could actually hear that time ticking, each minute a potential countdown to something horrific. Now, thankfully, we have a lot more awareness and reporting around this now, which is good! The term hasn't exactly gone mainstream—you won't find it in the Urban Dictionary—but you absolutely WILL see it cropping up in certain circles online and amongst domestic abuse survivors