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"New" Words From the Geek Culture
thatskinnyguy sends news of Merriam-Webster's 2008 list of new words and, to no-one's surprise, a good number of them come out of geek culture: words like webinar, malware, netroots, pretexting, and fanboy are now official words according to M-W. The CNet article pulls out one "new" word for special appreciation — mondegreen — and, while the article gets the origin right, it ends with a lame call for readers to send in their favorite mondegreens. (CNet does have the good grace to link the Kiss This Guy site.) SFGate columnist Jon Carroll has been collecting readers' mondegreens since 1995 and his list is bound to be better. Quoting Carroll, in a prophetic mode: "This space has been for some years the chief publicity agent for mondegreens. The Oxford English Dictionary has not yet seen the light, but it will, it will." Would you believe, Merriam-Webster's?
You spelled "fanboi" wrong.
Sincerely,
AC
What is a "webinar" for example?
It was invented by a group of HR people. They needed a cool new word for "webcast", so people wouldn't get angry when they found out that instead of spending a week at retreat on professional development, they were to be locked in a room with a projector instead.
webinar, n:
1) something formed by or as if by weaving. There's a spider webinar garage
I find it egregious that it took until 2007 to add "w00t" to the dictionary. I was using w00t back in the Warcraft II and Command & Conquer days.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have some juvenile delinquents that I need to evict from my grass.
If Merriam-Webster is going to start adding geek words (though the ones added are of a questionable credibility), I petition that they also add geek words with much more historical and cultural significance.
Yes, it is time a major dictionary added the word 'goatse'. But they should hide it in a tiny locked compartment in the back of the dictionary to seal up the evil it contains. Precautions must be taken to prevent unsuspecting people from accidentally reading words of this much power.
I can finally tell someone their picture should be in the dictionary under fanboy.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
At my last job everyone used the term webinar. Just because you have a unique experience doesn't mean everyone else has the same experience...
Actually, if you have a unique experience, that specifically means that no one else has had that experience. I learned that at a recent company 'blogginar'.