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...until they censor your website. Wikileaks is not the only one with a problem.

It stands for Galvanised Iron, and is of English origin.

Is that like a plugged nickel?

I'm not usually the grammar nazi, but the phrase is "toe the line". Most people mistakenly write it as "tow the line", but "tote the line" is an uncommon way to screw this up.
http://www.wordorigins.org/wordort.htm#toeline

http://www.wordorigins.org/Words/LetterL/lockandlo ad.html
Lock and Load
This imperative phrase originally referred to the operation of the M1 Garand Rifle, the standard U.S. Army rifle of WWII. Its meaning is more general now, referring to preparation for any imminent event.

To load a Garand, the bolt would be locked to the rear and a clip of ammunition loaded into the receiver. The command lock and load was immortalized by John Wayne in the 1949 movie The Sands of Iwo Jima: "Lock and load, boy, lock and load."
There are earlier uses of the command reversed, load and lock. This command, primarily used on firing ranges, referred to the loading of a single round into the Garand (or into another weapon). In this case, the lock referred to striking the bolt handle with the heel of the hand to ensure it was fully closed and locked into place.

And you want to mess with something the Duke said? Shame on you. :)

no, lock refers to LOCKING THE BOLT CLOSED after loading a round in the internal mag or breach.

Pick up a bolt-action rifle [circa when "lock and load" came about]. It's a hollywoodism, see this page about half way down.

You "switch" fire modes, you don't lock them. And frankly I always hear it as "turn the safety on" or off, etc... not "lock the safety" because that doesn't make any sense.

Tom

Finding a million examples of folks misusing any common phrase is not difficult. It doesn't make them right, either.

The top results from a quick Google search back up the description of drinking the kool-aid as an act of self-destructive or blind faith:

http://www.wordspy.com/words/drinktheKool-Aid.asp
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/92/debunk.html
http://www.wordorigins.org/Words/LetterD/drinkkool aid.html
Also, see the "Hacker Slang" section of the page at http://www.answers.com/topic/kool-aid

The only dissenting explanation is far more pithy, and evidences less research:
http://www.clichesite.com/content.asp?which=tip+19 48

http://www.wordorigins.org/histeng.htm#amer

The iTunes store does fairly well as a centralized system, but even Apple has admitted this, their profits are virtually a joke in terms of actual cash amount.

Not a lot of people know that.

That's because it's not true. The term "bug" originated in the nineteenth century to mean a mechanical defect, and predates electricity.

And don't even get me started on swearing! Did you know that the cursing words are not in the same part of your brain where other words are regularly stored? Therefore recent studies have showed that cursing is more a physiological necessity than a habit!

Ok, I call bullshit. Show me a link to a respectable article that makes such a claim, and I will accept it.

However, I think you are confusing several issues. Swear words are just words; it's the meaning attached to them and the social stigma surrounding them that gives them power. The word itself would be stored in the same neural database that holds all other words, but since they evoke such emotional responses, I would say that those emotions would be stored somewhere different than the emotional response to a word like "chair." Other words with large emotional responses, like your family's names, or compliments, or hurtful epithets, would have their own area of brain activity when compared with words that do not contain emotional responses. I'm sure everyone has a different set of words that they react strongly to (although many may overlap). Triggering a wide range of appropriate emotional responses is probably quite healthy, psychologically, but it's not about the word itself.

One only has to look at the evolution of language to see that the power of strong words is not in the word itself, but in the meaning attached to it by a community. Words considered offensive have come in and out of style for hundreds of years (and not even counting the evolution of politically correct racial descriptions).

I think what's important to remember about swearing is whether the person you talk to would be offended by what you say. If they would, then I recommend you don't use the word. But if they have no problem with it, then by all means go ahead and use the word. After all, if there's no social stigma attached to it, it's just a word.

(Incidentally, I'm only offended by overuse of swear words; if you can't be more creative with your vocabulary than to use the word "fuck" as every part of speech you can think of, then you're not expressing yourself well. By conservative estimates, there are 20,000 words at the average educated English speaker's disposal; don't focus on just eight or nine.)

Many web sites call that an urban legend.

Whatever the etymology, it's clearly offensive.

"Brass monkey"

Urban legend. Many phrases like that are.

---

I'm not worried about the use of DRM. I'm worried about the abuse.

Source on that? Because I'm pretty sure you're wrong. In fact, a quick perusal of the Net indicates that Gen X would actually be (and was sometimes called) "Generation 13", dating from the colonial period.

Check out http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/19990727.html; http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorg.htm {scroll down}; and http://users.metro2000.net/~stabbott/genxintro.htm .

Ok forget you have proved to be less then able to spell.

Here is but one source to establish my point:
American English

American English
Also significant beginning around 1600 AD was the English colonization of North America and the subsequent creation of a distinct American dialect. Some pronunciations and usages "froze" when they reached the American shore. In certain respects, American English is closer to the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some "Americanisms" that the British decry are actually originally British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost at home (e.g., fall as a synonym for autumn, trash for rubbish, frame-up which was reintroduced to Britain through Hollywood gangster movies, and loan as a verb instead of lend).

The American dialect also served as the route of introduction for many native American words into the English language. Most often, these were place names like Mississippi, Roanoke, and Iowa. Indian-sounding names like Idaho were sometimes created that had no native-American roots. But, names for other things besides places were also common. Raccoon, tomato, canoe, barbecue, savanna, and hickory have native American roots, although in many cases the original Indian words were mangled almost beyond recognition.

Spanish has also been great influence on American English. Armadillo, mustang, canyon, ranch, stampede, and vigilante are all examples of Spanish words that made their way into English through the settlement of the American West.

To a lesser extent French, mainly via Louisiana, and West African, through the importation of slaves, words have influenced American English. Armoire, bayou, and jambalaya came into the language via New Orleans. Goober, gumbo, and tote are West African borrowings first used in America by slaves.

Now go away.

I thought geek meant fool....

Well, it might work... assuming the current government motto of "outsource everything" comes into play. Take for example, Private Military Companies. If the army wants to sidestep Geneva conventions and public oversight by outsourcing the ugly parts to corporations, then someone should be able to patent something important to effectively toss a sabot into the machinery.

Left as an exercise to reader: After declaring your patent and filing suit to prevent infringement, try to stay alive long enough to see the trial to closure.

It's a well known fact [wikipedia.org] that the term "hacker" did not originally apply to the people that media now calls hackers....And just in case you all are too lazy to read the links.....[blah blah blah]

There isn't anything on that Wikipedia page about the original use of the word. Perhaps you yourself should read your links?

It's well known that the very first use of the term "hacker" in the context of IT referred to people who destructively abused computer networks.

Well, considering that is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/10th of the words estimated to be in the English language, there are quite a few not in the list. The actual number varies by source however, estimated between approximately 800,000 and 1,000,000 words.

"Although tens of thousands of kanji have been used in the past, currently only 2000 or so are used in everyday language. Nevertheless, mastering the use of kanji is extremely difficult. Besides the necessity of memorizing large numbers of kanji, individual kanji adopt different meanings and pronunciations depending on their juxtaposition within a sentence or word. In Japan, the number of kanji a person knows and uses reflects his or her education."

Actually those are two separate things.
You're right about the 'jury rig' stuff, not disagreeing with that BTW.

Some dictionaries will say that 'jerry rig' means the same as 'jury rig' (that is what dictionary.com would tell you, for example). But you can find explanations of the differences. Basically think: Jury rig = temporary, quick-fix solution, possibly a novel implementation & Jerry rig = not necessarily temporary, junk solution.

See the Wordorigins.org J-word page, as well as this WordCourt page or this Phrase Finder post

Given the things that are (successfully) sued over in the US, this may not be that outlandish. First of all, "the use of a trademark in connection with the sale of a good constitutes infringement if it is likely to cause consumer confusion as to the source of those goods or as to the sponsorship or approval of such goods" (cyber.law.harvard.edu). Google is certainly using the name to make money. However, this may fail because, other than the book containing the word "googol," I don't get the impression that the Kasner family is trying to sell anything using this name. However, ever since I started using Google, I haven't been able to remember the correct spelling of googol -- so there is a case to be made for some confusion. Might one not reasonably assume some connection between the company and Kasner?

I don't know if the inclusion of the term in a book counts. According to cyber.law.harvard.edu again, "A trademark is a word, symbol, or phrase, used to identify a particular manufacturer or seller's products and distinguish them from the products of another." So it may not be trademark infringement -- but what about copyright? From the Copyright office, under "What is not protected by copyright?" we find "Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans". My assumption would be that the made-up word would could fall through this crack. Probably depends on the quality of the lawyers.

Dictionary.com DOES suggest a connection, saying that "The site's name is apparently derived from 'googol', but note the difference in spelling." wordorigins.org also suggests that Google "is a deliberate variant of the mathematical term...They altered the spelling for trademark purposes" (not that I know how the authors at wordorigins know what Page and Brin were thinking at the time).

So. Money grubbing? Yes. Ridiculous given the things that the US system has granted copyright protection? Maybe not.

And, of course, the obligatory IANAL.

Geek is actually a very old word. It is a variant of geck, a term of Low German/Dutch origin that dates in English to 1511. It means a fool, simpleton, or dupe. Geck is even used by Shakespeare in Twelfth Night, V.i.:

Why haue you suffer'd me to be imprison'd. And made the most notorious gecke and gull That ere inuention plaid on? The geek spelling is an American variation, even though Shakespeare uses the spelling geeke in Cymbeline V.iv., but this is probably just a misspelling. Geek first appears (outside the single Shakespearean usage) in 1876 America. American usage adds the connotation of offensive or undesirable to the original foolish and stupid sense. The Carnival sideshow sense appears in 1928.

(taken from Here) its low german/dutch! and you can't pronounce it? for shame

I know you're a mere a troll monkey, but I couldn't help but think you're being a bit niggardly in your use of the word "spade"

the origins of the phrase.

What *I* can't understand is why people think that reference books (even Internet ones) are up to date and provide indebatable evidence or proof. They are at best a snapshot of word meanings by a single author or group. The simple fact is that language constantly changes and sometimes you end up with terms that should be opposites (flammable and inflammable) but actually mean the same thing.

Since you seem interested, I refer you to this periodical or even better, this public radio site and specifically the letter that people send in and the responses. You may or may not like it.

Others have made good points, so I'll just throw this out there: People typically use words or names as passwords rather than random characters, so just compare the space that would have to be searched:

Number of English words: 616,500 (from OED2, and this should be pretty generous)
Number of random 8 char-length passwords: 208,827,064,576 (letters only, 26^8)

Which would you rather search?

clarification. it's not aligning one's toes, but rather bringing one's toes up to a line.

"Yes, it's toe, not tow, a common mistake. Toe the line or mark dates to 1813 and is a metaphorical reference to the start of a race, the runners conforming to the starter's orders." Reference.

Ist daß klar?

http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorr.htm#Rebate

I'm afraid that acronym is another of those words that through relaxed usage has come to mean all of these concoctions, e.g., here. I actually like it better the modern way, as some acronyms are pronounced or said different by different people -- URL -- and acronym to be connotes the abbr. of a common word by squashing letters out of it. OK?

This source says acronyms are a novel 20th century affliction.

What amuse me are the words that vary not in sound but by a letter, which sticklers nonetheless insist are entirely different -- farther/further, inquire/enquire, insure/ensure, potato/potatoe (heh-heh -- just kidding -- I wouldn't have let that one go!)

OK, admittedly I am careful in my writing to follow most of these stupid rules, excepe for splitting infinitives, which I do with abandon if it suits the occasion.

Huh. Maybe you need to expand your circle of friends to include some who can read, or at least own better dictionaries. While I'm not debating that your use of the word is the most common I was playing with the original poster's insistance that it was a tabloid in every sense. It was what we humans call a joke.

Come to think of it, you really aren't worth this much effort, are you?

Star Trek started the myth about "sabot" in "sabotage" referring to shoes. This is just false. "Sabot" refers to the metal clamps used in railroads.
Source

You're right, of course. Traditional civil disobedience would be the way to go in an ordinarily democratic society, in which the will of the people prevails.

Here. Read this.

Their concept of civil disobedience is a little different than Thoreau's in that they don't seem to favor individual acts. They are talking about public mass demonstrations. But what demonstrations are we talking about here? A million man march on Redmond? I am not sure that would do a thing.

File this one under "Monkey Wrench"... You can debate the morality and ethical implications at your leisure, but stop calling it civil disobedience, and start calling it what it really is(dig the Star Trek reference). It might make it harder to justify, and easier to vilify, n'est ce pas?

XML is an initialism.

You're realy spplitting hairs here. But, for those of you who are interested, check out this web site:
English errors page from wordorigins.org. They talk about acronyms, their origins, and some misconceptions about common acronyms.

XML is an initialism.

You're realy spplitting hairs here. But, for those of you who are interested, check out this web site:
English errors page from wordorigins.org. They talk about acronyms, their origins, and some misconceptions about common acronyms.