GIF Becomes Word of the Year 2012

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GIF Becomes Word of the Year 2012

Posted by samzenpus on Monday November 19, 2012 @05:06AM from the in-other-arbitrary-news dept.

mikejuk writes "GIF started out as a humble acronym 25 years ago, entered common parlance as the format used for web graphics and now achieves fame as a verb by becoming Oxford Dictionaries USA Word of the Year 2012. GIF as a noun has always been an all-capital letter noun. Becoming a verb has caused problems concerning the use of capital and lower case letters. The common form is to keep the noun in caps and add the verbal endings in lower case — as in GIFed,GIFing), However, an all lower-case spelling with the f duplicated (giffed, giffing) is also being used."

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But how does it sound? by MrLint · 2012-11-19 05:07 · Score: 2

Are they going to publish it with the incorrect pronunciation that "everyone" says is correct?
1. Re:But how does it sound? by phantomfive · 2012-11-19 05:13 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  I came to say the exact same thing, but I clicked through the maze of links first, and found:
  
  Pronunciation: /jif, gif/
  The OED describes, not prescribes.
  
  --
  "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
2. Re:But how does it sound? by YodasEvilTwin · 2012-11-19 05:13 · Score: 2
  
  You're seriously going prescriptivist on an initialism that exists only because of natural descriptivist language?
3. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:14 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  I hope they publish it with the hard G so that becomes the accepted pronunciation. Face it, the soft G version just sounds dumb.
4. Re:But how does it sound? by jandrese · 2012-11-19 05:36 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  No, it make sense, because it's the Jiraffics Interchange Format.
  
  --
  
  I read the internet for the articles.
5. Re:But how does it sound? by Baloroth · 2012-11-19 05:39 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  I think everyone sees your general gist. Wait...
  
  --
  "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
6. Re:But how does it sound? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-11-19 05:39 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Giga is pronounced with a hard G? Great Scott...
7. Re:But how does it sound? by preaction · 2012-11-19 05:41 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  YES! Now I can say "jif" and NOBODY CAN DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT! The world shall soon be mine!
8. Re:But how does it sound? by Samantha+Wright · 2012-11-19 05:41 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  More importantly, it conflicts. JIFF is another (albeit obscure) name for JPEG. (Joint Photographic Experts Group Image File Format.)
  
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9. Re:But how does it sound? by Joce640k · 2012-11-19 05:57 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Those either have diphthongs or are bastardized versions of a weird foreign word (giraffe).
  Do you have an example of a word that starts with "gif..." where the 'g' is pronounced like 'j'?
  
  --
  No sig today...
10. Re:But how does it sound? by cayenne8 · 2012-11-19 06:05 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Hmm...more important that pronounciation...
  Does anyone actually even USE gifs anymore??
  I've not heard anyone even mention them in decades for the most part...
  Aside from the odd animated gif here and there, I've not really thought I'd encountered one in a LONG time...
  Shocked to see it as word of the year...
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
11. Re:But how does it sound? by Dishevel · 2012-11-19 06:21 · Score: 2
  
  This is why OED is dying.
  They have no idea what is going on.
  
  --
  Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
12. Re:But how does it sound? by Vrtigo1 · 2012-11-19 06:33 · Score: 2
  
  I must be right because I gave more examples that you did. GIF
  Gibs
  Giblets
  Giraffe
  Gem
  Ginger
  Gentle
  Gigolo
  Gym
  Gyro
  George
  Germany
  Giant
  Gin
13. Re:But how does it sound? by Ed_Pinkley · 2012-11-19 06:34 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Here's the thing: If you invent something, you get to name it.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Interchange_Format#Pronunciation
  " According to Steve Wilhite, the creator of the GIF format, the original pronunciation deliberately echoes the American peanut butter brand, Jif, "
  
  --
  "Long time listener, first time caller."
14. Re:But how does it sound? by HaZardman27 · 2012-11-19 06:53 · Score: 2
  
  They're pretty popular on places like Imgur and Reddit, I believe.
  
  --
  Apparently wizard is not a legitimate career path, so I chose programmer instead.
15. Re:But how does it sound? by bill_mcgonigle · 2012-11-19 07:07 · Score: 2
  
  Pronounce it like "gift" but without the "t"
  No, don't.
  
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16. Re:But how does it sound? by Dogtanian · 2012-11-19 07:11 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  PNG is good if you dont mind blocky distortion around your line art too!
  Huh? PNG supports 24 and 32-bit colour- more than enough for anti-aliasing- and 8-bit transparency so you're either assuming that the limitations of GIF are those of PNG, or you're using an old browser that doesn't handle transparent PNGs correctly and messes up the background.
  
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17. Re:But how does it sound? by osu-neko · 2012-11-19 07:22 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  The OED describes, not prescribes.
  All dictionaries do. They're anthropological documents, really. They document observations of an aspect of human behavior: the words they use and what they mean when they use them. It boggles my mind that anyone gets confused about that, thinking they do anything more...
  
  --
  "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
18. Re:But how does it sound? by wcrowe · 2012-11-19 07:26 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I'm seeing animated gifs show up a lot in memes lately. It's like a new generation has discovered how to build them.
  
  --
  Proverbs 21:19
19. Re:But how does it sound? by dougmc · 2012-11-19 07:32 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Does anyone actually even USE gifs anymore??
  ...
  Aside from the odd animated gif here and there, I've not really thought I'd encountered one in a LONG time...
  Shocked to see it as word of the year...
  Even in 2012, animated gifs are more common than you give them credit for. People are even doing really neat things with them such as this (and I've got to admit, a 256 color palette is hard to work with, but they've made it look pretty good for the most part.)
  I do concur though, it's odd for it to be the "word of the year" this far after its prime.
20. Re:But how does it sound? by Mal-2 · 2012-11-19 08:12 · Score: 2
  
  Odd animated GIF? There are entire boards dedicated to them, like 4GIFS.com.
  
  --
  How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
21. Re:But how does it sound? by jonadab · 2012-11-19 08:35 · Score: 2
  
  > if you dont mind blocky distortion around your line art too
  You're thinking of JPEG.
  
  PNG is lossless (for purely two-dimensional images).
  
  GIF is theoretically lossless (in the sense that saving repeatedly does not degrade the image further), but it (generally, in practice) means reducing your colorspace to 8-bit, which entails a significant amount of information loss for most images. Though it would be fine for something with almost no color anyway, e.g., xkcd.
  
  Of course, if you want to preserve editing features (e.g., layers and masks), then you're going to save in a format that supports such things, probably either .psd or .xcf (or a compressed version thereof) in most cases.
  
  But PNG is fine for distribution to people who are just going to look at the image and not edit it -- e.g., for display on a website, or for printing.
  
  --
  Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
22. Re:But how does it sound? by arth1 · 2012-11-19 09:44 · Score: 2
  
  I think you missed the "and you're not sure how" part. But yes, I much prefer S-C-S-I spelled out than someone trying to pronounce it who doesn't know how. "Sucsai" wouldn't be very helpful.
  I've heard many inventive pronunciations over the years.
  TCPIP = tucpip (or more commonly, but just as wrong, teeceepip)
  SQL = squeal
  CPU = spuu
  PCMCIA = puckmuckia
  HTTP = huttup
  DPI = dippies
silly by FalseModesty · 2012-11-19 05:08 · Score: 5, Insightful

It's 25 years old. How can it be the word of this year?
1. Re:silly by marcello_dl · 2012-11-19 05:15 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  It's 25 years old. How can it be the word of this year?
  Silly you, we had to wait 'till all patents on it expired.
  
  --
  ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
2. Re:silly by Ossifer · 2012-11-19 05:24 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Yeah, GIF was so '89... or maybe it was '89a...
3. Re:silly by SleazyRidr · 2012-11-19 09:02 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  They still haven't added "gullible."
  
  --
  Is 1563649 a prime number?
Just in time by Arancaytar · 2012-11-19 05:09 · Score: 4, Insightful

Who even uses GIF anymore?
1. Re:Just in time by serviscope_minor · 2012-11-19 05:13 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Who even uses GIF anymore?
  All the young people these days seem to be making funny little animated gifs of things.
  Quite strange. It feels like geocities.
  Now, while you're partying like it's 1999, please get off my lawn.
  
  --
  SJW n. One who posts facts.
2. Re:Just in time by Andr+T. · 2012-11-19 05:16 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I thought gifs couldn't be fun until I saw this: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdqahveJp01qdlh1io1_400.gif
  
  --
  Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
3. Re:Just in time by somersault · 2012-11-19 05:18 · Score: 2
  
  It is kind of annoying that they couldn't have settled on a better quality format..
  
  --
  which is totally what she said
4. Re:Just in time by bennomatic · 2012-11-19 05:20 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  The best use I've ever seen of GIFs: If We Don't, Remember Me.
  
  --
  The CB App. What's your 20?
5. Re:Just in time by jandrese · 2012-11-19 05:38 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  PNG tried, but they had no traction on MNG, so they reworked it into APNG and still had no takers.
  
  --
  
  I read the internet for the articles.
6. Re:Just in time by SourceFrog · 2012-11-19 05:44 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  If that's your experience, you're almost certainly using an inferior PNG encoder (yes, PNG compression works in ways that effectively allow 'bad implementations' to create larger files :/ .. one of the big things that held it back was a common misconception that it gave inferior compression due to a popular image manipulation package (Photoshop) that had a shitty PNG implementation. With a proper encoder, basically the only time GIF should give you smaller filesizes, is on very small images (e.g. 10x10 pixels), where the size is anyway usually maybe a couple hundred bytes (though this can make some difference, depending on the scale of your application (e.g. if you were tasked on optimizing the size of something that appears on Google's front page that must be delivered trillions of times), it might still be worth bothering to figure out which is smaller in that case, but usually the difference is negligible).
  
  --
  My other UID is three digits.
7. Re:Just in time by jandrese · 2012-11-19 05:55 · Score: 2
  
  The problem is that it is not the default. When you compress something with PNG, more often than not whatever program you're using will decide to use a full 24 bit colorspace with alpha channel added and bloat the file up. With GIF that never happens, so people think GIFs are just smaller. Of course GIFs often look like dithered messes too, so there is a tradeoff.
  
  --
  
  I read the internet for the articles.
8. Re:Just in time by Derek+Pomery · 2012-11-19 06:30 · Score: 2
  
  Well, MNG might have had more traction if Firefox had kept support. Even for the "light" version of MNG.
  Initially the accusation was that MNG took up too much space in Firefox (entire kilobytes more!) amusing in this age of slapping in megabytes of libs for the latest camera/microphone HTML5 support.
  Anyway, the MNG guys went and stripped down libmng (minimal support) so that there was no increase in resulting size.
  At that point, the reason changed to concerns about security. Which, is reasonable I guess, although I'd again point to all the libs they are just slapping in.
  MNG had a lot of potential. There was the JNG - can you believe that over a decade ago we had browsers with lossy images with alpha channel?
  Personally I think it was the fact that the people who were most active in killing off https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18574 were those who had created APNG.
  I'd be fine w/ APNG even with the less efficient animation frames if only they hadn't killed off JNG to get it :(
  
  --
  -- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"' /. ate my old sig. Bastards.
9. Re:Just in time by SourceFrog · 2012-11-19 12:05 · Score: 2
  
  The problem is that it is not the default. When you compress something with PNG, more often than not whatever program you're using will decide to use a full 24 bit
  No, that is not the problem, and you're not understanding the problem at all. The problem is that some common image programs compress the PNG badly, even if the correct colorspace is selected. This has nothing at all to do with the colorspace. You can select the correct colorspace all day long and those applications will still produce poorly compressed PNGs with file sizes that are larger than they are supposed to be if they were compressed properly.
  These application include older versions of Photoshop, as well as MS Paint.
  There are several reasons for these problems (and why it's possible for this to occur); one of them is that PNG includes the possibility to choose from different compression algorithms per scanline. A PNG generating application is supposed to determine the optimal method, but lazy software applications do not bother.
  Other reasons include saving excessive amounts of header information, and then there are specific applications that add even more nonsense (some of the Adobe apps).
  Many people incorrectly blame the PNG format for these inefficiencies.
  There is more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics#File_size_and_optimization_software
  Some programs are more efficient than others when saving PNG files, this relates to implementation of the PNG compression used by the program. Many graphics programs (such as Apple's Preview software) save PNGs with large amounts of metadata and color-correction data that are generally unnecessary for Web viewing. Unoptimized PNG files from Adobe Fireworks are also notorious for this since they contain options to make the image editable in supported editors
  
  --
  My other UID is three digits.
UK word of the year by admcd · 2012-11-19 05:11 · Score: 2

I prefer their UK word of the year: omnishambles.
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/11/uk-word-of-the-year-2012/
A bit late by Hentes · 2012-11-19 05:11 · Score: 4, Interesting

It's been obsoleted by PNG for more thanlike 15 years now. They could just as well choose floppy.
1. Re:A bit late by Eric+S.+Smith · 2012-11-19 05:18 · Score: 2
  
  Still no Unicode support here at Slashdot, I see, speaking of outdatedness.
  
  --
  Mind the Gap
2. Re:A bit late by kybur · 2012-11-19 05:30 · Score: 2
  
  Not really. People are using GIFs for animation. PNGs don't support that. Many browsers don't support APNGs. Regular PNGs didn't even work correctly in IE6, which took way too long to die.
But but but.... by roc97007 · 2012-11-19 05:19 · Score: 2

But... GIFs are so last century! There used to be a joke "beware of geeks bearing gifs" but not even geeks get it anymore.
Oxford, welcome to the nineties. You might want to check your PC clock. I think the battery died.

--
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Re:wasn't this GIFF by codewarren · 2012-11-19 05:21 · Score: 3, Funny

No one uses that. Do you use "thou" and "thy" and shit?
Yes to the third one.
Verb form: no by crow · 2012-11-19 05:22 · Score: 2

The issue with the verb form is not how to handle adding suffixes to an upper-case initialism, the issue is that people would thing do verb that noun in the first place. While I've heard lots of people talk about GIFs, I would get all GIFed if I actually heard someone verb "GIF." That's just GIFing stupid.
Seriously, does anyone do that?
1. Re:Verb form: no by amicusNYCL · 2012-11-19 05:41 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  the issue is that people would thing do verb that noun in the first place
  err, what was that?
  First they came for the verbs, and I said nothing because verbing weirds language. Then they arrival for the nouns, and I speech nothing because I no verbs.
  - Peter Ellis
  
  --
  "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Re:How's that spelled? by amicusNYCL · 2012-11-19 05:39 · Score: 2

I tend to use the same sound as the word that the letter abbreviates, in this case "graphic".

--
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
limerick by wbr1 · 2012-11-19 05:42 · Score: 4, Funny

Some geeks wanted a way to make glyphs
They named their new standard GIF
Now the formats obsolete
But tweeting the word is l33t
And real dweebs continue to use TIFF

--
Silence is a state of mime.
GIZ by g4b · 2012-11-19 05:44 · Score: 4, Funny

I say GIZ would be a nice format for zlibbed gif. it would also ease the use as a verb.
Re:Seriously? by Mr.+Slippery · 2012-11-19 05:56 · Score: 2

random teens on Facebook would still have no idea what a GIF is.
Get hep, daddy-o. Animated GIFs are bad. Or whatever the kids call it these days. They're an easy and widely-supported means to get short video clips out.

--
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You cannot wash away blood with blood
How timely by wonkey_monkey · 2012-11-19 06:05 · Score: 4, Funny

What's going to be Word of the Year for 2013? "RealPlayer"?

--
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
1. Re:How timely by H0p313ss · 2012-11-19 07:16 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Complete steaming pile of shit realplayer is longer than one word.
  While it is pronounced "steaming pile of shit", it is still spelled realplayer and therefore one word.
  
  --
  XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
And also... by AliasMarlowe · 2012-11-19 06:27 · Score: 2

Jif is a brand of lemon juice. Jif is also a brand of Peanut butter. I've always pronounced GIF with a hard G, as in giggling gizmo girth girls give gilded gizzards girdle girder gimmick gifts.

--
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
1. Re:And also... by number6x · 2012-11-19 06:47 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  You left one very important word out of your list of hard G words: Graphic.
  GIF is an acronym for Graphic Interchange Format, not for Giraffe interchange format. So the G in GIF is hard, just like the G in Graphic.
2. Re:And also... by pclminion · 2012-11-19 07:26 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  GIF is an acronym for Graphic Interchange Format, not for Giraffe interchange format. So the G in GIF is hard, just like the G in Graphic.
  Laser is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, not Light Amplification by Ztimulated Emission of Radiation. Therefore the 's' in laser is unvoiced and should be pronounced "lay-sir" not "lay-zer."
  Actually, no, that's still not right. The A in Amplification is a short A not a long one, so the word should be pronounced "lah-sir." But wait, the E in emission is long, so it should actually be "lah-seer."
  Or we could admit that that's not how acronym pronunciation works and stop being dumbshits.
3. Re:And also... by Culture20 · 2012-11-19 07:39 · Score: 2
  
  I don't think acronyms work like that, otherwise NASA and PETA would sound totally different than they are currently pronounced. (Nehsah instead of Nasah, Pehtah instead of peetah) Not to mention fubar (fuhbar?).
4. Re:And also... by cstacy · 2012-11-19 07:58 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Laser is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, not Light Amplification by Ztimulated Emission of Radiation. Therefore the 's' in laser is unvoiced and should be pronounced "lay-sir" not "lay-zer." Actually, no, that's still not right. The A in Amplification is a short A not a long one, so the word should be pronounced "lah-sir." But wait, the E in emission is long, so it should actually be "lah-seer."
  That's why one always uses finger quotes when referring to a device that I call a "Layzer".
*Yawn* by Seumas · 2012-11-19 06:42 · Score: 2

The annual list of new words from the OED is just a lame promotional bit filled almost entirely with dumb words. Just ignore them and maybe they'll go away.
JFIF by tepples · 2012-11-19 07:27 · Score: 2

I thought the obscure name for JPEG files was JFIF, not JIFF.