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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
Witness the birth of a new geek word on Arstechnica forum:
pludgeverb
1 [ intrans. ] to install an operating system update before verifying that it's safe to do so on the [Ars Mac forum]
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8300945231/m/953002313931
The thread is now the third link on Google if you search for the word.
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.
I realize being a language Nazi is nerdy, even by Slashdot standards, but this summary is just shockingly awful!
The headline reads "\"New\" Words From The Geek Culture". So the summary starts off with a single line on it, then randomly rambles on about CNet focusing on 'mondegreens'. Bzzt! Summary-headline mismatch already! Now it's possible that kdawson is just mimicking TFA, which does the same, but that's a frcikin' blog post! Somehow, a rambling blog post has been distilled into (if it's possible) a fumbly summary as well!
All this meandering is topped off with a quite inexplicable question: "Would you believe, Merriam-Webster's?"
Seriously, WTF?
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"web seminar" it's not a geek term at all, but a marketing one. my old boss used to love these damn things and every time he'd say the word "webinar" a peice of me died a little inside
-- Sex is the antonym of pringles. Once you pop it's time to stop.
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.
Even if you can guess what it means, it's always good fun to pounce on neologisms and jargon and grill the user why they are using them instead of a more traditional word. My Dad told me a great story. He worked for the University which was under pressure from its new Thatcher appointed Vice Chancellor to be more 'commercially oriented' while no one really knew in practice what this meant. The VC gave a speech full or management consultancyisms and uses the word proactive. Someone stood up and asked him if he meant active. The VC blusters and the questioner keeps arguing. After a very long time the VC says "ok, you win I meant active". The questioner sat down. The VC delivered the rest of the speech without much enthusiasm and left without allowing questions from the floor.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
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'.