3.10.2005
Jargon Watch
Putting together yesterday's blog post made me start thinking about other words or phrases that have been coined, whether they have successfully entered our language or are simply found on an isolated website or used amongst a small, select group of people.
I thought I'd check Boing Boing first, since they had first pointed me in the direction of "dinosaur blog," but I discovered that they don't have a special "jargon watch" section. Though I did find an entry from 2003 about TV biz jargon watch that had words like "anticipointment (n): what viewers experience when you fall short of their expectations after over-promoting a story or show." While entertaining, these words seemed more like sniglets (words that don’t appear in the dictionary, but should) than words that might truly enter our language.
So I did a quick search and found: The Word Spy. This has some sniglet-type words along with phrases that have (or could conceivably) become part of our regular jargon. A few examples:
anacronym n. An acronym where few people remember what each letter stands for (anachronistic + acronym). Ex. radar.
beforemath (bee.FOHR.math) n. The events and situations that lead to a particular end (cf. aftermath).
CHAOS (KAY.aws) acronym. Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome; not inviting guests to one's house because it is too messy or cluttered.
egosurfing n. The activity of searching the World Wide Web for occurrences of your own name.
fauxhemian (FOH.hee.mee.un) adj. Relating to something that is bohemian in a fake or pretentious manner. n. A middle class or wealthy person who affects a countercultural lifestyle.
grassy knollism n. A tendency to formulate conspiracy theories, despite facts to the contrary or a lack of evidence.
ignoranus (ig.nor.AY.nus) n. A person who is both stupid and extremely rude or obnoxious.
jargon gap n. The inability to understand another person's jargon-laden writing or speech; a feeling of inadequacy (usu. ironic) caused by another's facility with jargon terms.
link rot n. The gradual obsolescence of the links on a Web page as the sites they point to become unavailable.
mobile speed bump n. A car that travels at the speed limit to force the cars behind to do the same.
numeronymous adj. Describes a phone number where the numbers also spell out a word or phrase (e.g., 1-800-GO-FEDEX).
threat fatigue (THRET fuh.teeg) n. Ignoring or downplaying possible threats because one has been subjected to constant warnings about those threats.
Volvo Democrat (VOHL.voh dem.uh.krat) n. A white, well-educated, moderately affluent, liberal, suburban professional. (This one tickled my funnybone because of my Greenpeace days... whenever we were canvassing and saw a Volvo in the driveway, we were practically guaranteed a donation.) cf. SUV Democrat & Lexus Liberal.
Other websites to check out:
Buffy Slanguage
Double-Tongued Word Wrester
Macmillan English Dictionary: New Words
The Slang Dictionary
Unwords
Urban Dictionary
My favourites tend to be words whose meanings you can intuit without the help of a definition. Such as "voluntold: when someone else volunteers you for something, usually against your will."
I thought I'd check Boing Boing first, since they had first pointed me in the direction of "dinosaur blog," but I discovered that they don't have a special "jargon watch" section. Though I did find an entry from 2003 about TV biz jargon watch that had words like "anticipointment (n): what viewers experience when you fall short of their expectations after over-promoting a story or show." While entertaining, these words seemed more like sniglets (words that don’t appear in the dictionary, but should) than words that might truly enter our language.
So I did a quick search and found: The Word Spy. This has some sniglet-type words along with phrases that have (or could conceivably) become part of our regular jargon. A few examples:
anacronym n. An acronym where few people remember what each letter stands for (anachronistic + acronym). Ex. radar.
beforemath (bee.FOHR.math) n. The events and situations that lead to a particular end (cf. aftermath).
CHAOS (KAY.aws) acronym. Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome; not inviting guests to one's house because it is too messy or cluttered.
egosurfing n. The activity of searching the World Wide Web for occurrences of your own name.
fauxhemian (FOH.hee.mee.un) adj. Relating to something that is bohemian in a fake or pretentious manner. n. A middle class or wealthy person who affects a countercultural lifestyle.
grassy knollism n. A tendency to formulate conspiracy theories, despite facts to the contrary or a lack of evidence.
ignoranus (ig.nor.AY.nus) n. A person who is both stupid and extremely rude or obnoxious.
jargon gap n. The inability to understand another person's jargon-laden writing or speech; a feeling of inadequacy (usu. ironic) caused by another's facility with jargon terms.
link rot n. The gradual obsolescence of the links on a Web page as the sites they point to become unavailable.
mobile speed bump n. A car that travels at the speed limit to force the cars behind to do the same.
numeronymous adj. Describes a phone number where the numbers also spell out a word or phrase (e.g., 1-800-GO-FEDEX).
threat fatigue (THRET fuh.teeg) n. Ignoring or downplaying possible threats because one has been subjected to constant warnings about those threats.
Volvo Democrat (VOHL.voh dem.uh.krat) n. A white, well-educated, moderately affluent, liberal, suburban professional. (This one tickled my funnybone because of my Greenpeace days... whenever we were canvassing and saw a Volvo in the driveway, we were practically guaranteed a donation.) cf. SUV Democrat & Lexus Liberal.
Other websites to check out:
Buffy Slanguage
Double-Tongued Word Wrester
Macmillan English Dictionary: New Words
The Slang Dictionary
Unwords
Urban Dictionary
My favourites tend to be words whose meanings you can intuit without the help of a definition. Such as "voluntold: when someone else volunteers you for something, usually against your will."
Labels: language
Comments:
Post a Comment
![[Valid Atom 0.3]](http://www.weirdgrrl.ca/images/valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 0.3 feed"){kind=small}
About Weirdgrrl
