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I came across the term 草生えた on the internet. There wasn't much context, but it didn't seem to mean that grass was growing. Is this a slang term?

What does it mean? I couldn't find it in any of my dictionaries.

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Thanks to @Chocolate, I was able to learn what this word means, which is roughly that something was funny. Here are a couple sources:

  1. http://wikiwiki.jp/himoteplus/?%C1%F0%C0%B8%A4%A8%A4%BF
  2. http://www.logsoku.com/r/livejupiter/1340676537/

Why does it mean something was funny? Well, as discussed in this question, strings of w (such as wwwwww) express laughter, like the English term "LOL". At some point, someone must have decided wwww looked like little blades of grass, so they came up with the expression 草生えた ("grew grass") to indirectly express the same thing.

wwwww-mowing bear

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    This is awesome. I wonder if any might link it to the expression たね (ネタ) referring to punch lines.
    – Nate Glenn
    Commented Jan 16, 2013 at 6:10
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    What an awesome question/answer!
    – ナウシカ
    Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 4:30
  • This origin is net game.Because it is not express (笑) in game.In my game there are various sign 39=thank you 02=お疲れ.
    – Takahiro Waki
    Commented Mar 11, 2016 at 3:57
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    39(san-kyuu) for サンキュー and 02(oh-two) for おつ（かれ）, I bet
    – psosuna
    Commented Oct 10, 2017 at 5:41
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Great research!

Well, literal (笑) someday changed into 'w' especially in 2ch and such, and some people don't like ones who uses too many of them, like, ちょっwwwwwwwwwww, (this must be like "hey, wait a minulollollollollol") and they started saying 草生えすぎ, or using the AA you put above, frowned （・ω・） mowing the lawn.

So now they also use 草生えた just instead of saying "it's funny."

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lol = www

w = 笑うwarau= laugh

w looks like grass.

lol = The grass grows = very funny

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