Words Archive

Three other people sharing the elevator were discussing a documentation error.  One of them explained that a consultant had been brought in to write that documentation, but had been “thrown out the window”.
I asked, “are we actually allowed to defenestrate contractors?”
Maybe we can only do that when no one is looking.
I think this may be [...]

Ballot confusion

My previous post mentioned a problem with a way to decide how to vote on ballot propositions.  I guess it’s not surprising that they should be a source of confusion to people.  As Marcus Schmidt observes in Institutionalizing Fair Democracy: The Theory of the Minipopulous:
It is highly improbable that a comparable kind of error could [...]

eschered /ˈɛsh’ər/, v. intr., to move or disappear in a surreal way, as might be seen in the works of Dutch artist M.C. Escher (e.g., Relativity).
Used in the novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman; since since in modest usage on the web.

Originally a spoonerism I inadvertently used in a business meeting.  Someone proposed a kludgy solution to a problem, and I meant to say that we should use a better, more general approach rather than an ad hoc fix.
od hac /ˈoʊˈdi hæk/, adjective,  improvised for one specific purpose, in a kludgy manner (as an undesirable hack)
Note [...]

BBC World Service aired a news item concerning the Pope’s visit to Brazil, and mentioned that he rode in the “popemobile,” though the word is not used in the written news story on their web site.  Wikipedia confirms that it is a portmanteau, though it is said to be an informal name.

nerdgasm /nûrd-gasm/, noun, a feeling of euphoria brought on by exposure to a new piece of tech gear or software.
Seen in Boing Boing post by Cory Doctorow, referring to student reactions to the Neuros OSD set-top box:
I’ve had a couple of these circulating in my class at USC this semester and some of the students [...]

I mostly use Linux, but on rare ocassions I do have to use Windows. When I bought a new laptop last year, I was annoyed at how much worthless junk (e.g., limited trial versions of software I don’t want) came preinstalled. Apparently I’m not the only person annoyed by how much hassle it [...]

What is a hero?

In an email discussion with two friends, criticism was levelled at an organization which has an image of Margaret Sanger on their web site, and it was said that one should “be careful about your ‘heroes’ — Margaret Sanger was a strong proponent of eugenics.” I responded that my list of heros [...]

grotendous /gr-tnds/, adjective, grotesque, horrendous. Used for extreme emphasis. Adverb: grotendously.
Cory Doctorow brought the adverb form to my attention with a posting on Boing Boing:
What’s weird to me is how the collective output of all that great work by great people produces such lousy outcomes — DRM-crippled OSes like Vista, stupid products like [...]

A new collective noun

From a meeting at work:
A jumble of PowerPoint slides