What does “prepped” mean?

Everyone thinks they know what a prepper is. But do they know the answer to the only question that matters?

Wait… what does “prepped” even mean? What does it mean to be prepped?

According to Urban Dictionary (the only dictionary online it seems that doesn’t defer the meaning of a past participle to its base word), “prepped” means:

“The state of being prepared.”

Prepped vs. Prepared

Prep and prepare; prepper and preparer; prepped and prepared: These have always been almost identical synonyms in the English language. However, everyone in this day and age knows that a prepper is very different than a preparer. Wikidiff splits out the difference to us exactly by looking at the definition from more official, rural dictionaries:

“As verbs the difference between prepare and prep is that prepare is to make ready for a specific future purpose; to set up; to assemble while prep is (informal) to prepare.”

(A quick grammar aside: Prepped is a past participle which is the third form of a verb, though we’ll always use it as an adjective… its meaning derives from its verb definition.)

A new formal definition for the word “prepped”

You can prepare for something specific, but you can’t be prepared for the unknown. Being prepped, in accordance with existing definitions and the new life that has been given to the word, thus means:

“The state of being prepared for the unknown.”

While the hit TV show Doomsday Preppers may make it seem like preppers are all prepping for one thing, the reality is very very different. Depending on where you live in the world, the unknown can be anything from severe weather to regular outages of the power grid due to overloaded infrastructure.

As always, my goal here is to show you that you are not prepped. Maybe it isn’t even possible to be fully prepped… But realizing that is the first step to becoming more prepped.

So. Tldr; To be prepped means to be prepared for the unknown.