Spying for Words

By Meghashri Dalvi

Have you ever wondered where the word “spam” comes from?

Ever come across gems like “meanderthals”?

Or chanced upon some mind-boggling words like “sonify”?

Want to know more about these words? Or want some more brilliant snippets? Log on to The Word Spy.

It is a site maintained by Paul McFedries, the well-known author and word-follower. His book (companion of this site) which his own words, “… is a series of cultural snapshots…that cover various slices of modern life, including relationships, business, technology, war, aging, multiculturalism, and even fast food.”

Sounds good? You bet! I have been visiting this site quite often. For the sheer joy of finding new words (and then finding occasions to use them! ).

His site is simple and very inviting. The Home page flashes random words – a treat by itself. Or you can go to a more systematic Alphabetical Index. Alternately, the Subject Index provides words sorted on various categories and sub-categories.

Language evolves to reflect the lifestyle changes. The Word Spy catches them and lexicons them nicely. Each word has a definition and actual citations. Many words are quite a revelation. For example, once I stumbled at Car-schooling, which is a real word, and is actually a registered trademark. On another visit, I found that Re-identification is a genuine process, even though the word appears pretty unreal.

As the technical communication fraternity, my favorite categories are Language, Computers, and Technology. They satisfy a prosaic need of keeping my domain knowledge updated. And at the same time, they keep me inspired with some astonishing discoveries. Have you ever Uninstalled any person? Or been subjected to Decruitment? How regularly do you Fleshmeet your chat pals? And do you pride churning out Buzzword-compliant documents? Check out what I mean.

Some words are outright quirky and spot-on. Take Crackberry for example. If you know any gadget-hugging Blackberry-addicted technobrats, you need not look further for a more fitting word. The lifestyle words like Mother out-law, Word of mouse, Voluntary simplicity, or Nanny-envy mirror the current state of affairs accurately. How could we ever live without these words?

The World Wide Web has liberated us from many barriers, including the strict grammar rules. We are getting comfortable with “verbing” proper nouns, mostly the revered websites. Paul has a special category for such verbs when he lists Amazon, Dell, and of course Google. The WWW- lifestyle also gives us new people types such as CGI Joe, Streamies, Typosquatter, or Knowbie, and a new language called Weblish.

Paul gently directs us with his own lists - most popular words, most recent words and his favorite words. Read Reduplicate and you will know why it is one of his favorites.

Paul’s keen research is evident in this site. The accurate citations, and the efforts to locate early citations, are commendable. His indulgence in coining new words makes Neologism a very exciting read.

Finally, the Quotations section gives you “Words about words”. This section is refreshed daily, while the archives boast of gems such as Dave Barry, Winston Churchill, and W. Somerset Maugham.

The site might have started as a fun place, but over time it is becoming a definitive guide for surviving Netspeak, Humpty Dumpty Language, mutated and metamorphosed fuzzwords, and deliberately skewed wordrobes.

Time to “must-lookmark’ this site! Oh, did I just coin a new entry there?

Meghashri Dalvi is a Documentation Executive with Savvion India.

STC India | Home | Contact Us