映える (baeru)

What it means

1. 1.

   To photograph well; to look good on a feed. Of food, a café, an outfit or a view chosen partly because it will.

Examples with translations

• このパフェ、めっちゃ映えるね。

  This parfait is going to photograph beautifully.

• 映え狙いでこのカフェ来た。

  We came to this café purely for the photos.

Where it comes from

From インスタ映え ('Instagram-worthy'), Japan's buzzword of the year in 2017, later clipped back to the verb alone. Standard Japanese already had 映える (haeru), 'to shine, to show to advantage'; the slang form voices the first consonant and narrows the meaning to photographs.

First attested: 2017

Other forms

Romanised as:

baeru

Spellings and variants:

ばえる, インスタ映え