01.13.09

No-no bots

Posted in acronyms, jargon, ugly words at 7:18 am by Bill Brohaugh

I already have a nomination for the American Dialect Society (ADS) 2009 Word of the Year, in the “Most Useless Word” category. This past year, ADS awarded that category to moofing (Mobile Out of OFfice-ing). My nomination is very much in line: nanobot.

Interesting word, and it’s been around for a time. It denotes microscopic robots—”wannabe proteins,” as Urbandictionary.com puts it—the stuff of science fiction. Nanobots injected in your body, for instance, could give you x-ray vision by deploying microlenses in your eyes, or recomb your hair without you having to reach all the way up there, or somesuch.

But that’s not the word I’m blasting. Nanobot is a well-constructed contraction of the prefix nano- (indicating something very small, a generalized use of its technical meaning of 10 to the minus ninth power, or one billionth, or at least I think, but then again, everything I know about math is wrong, too), and robot (a word itself introduced in science fiction: Karel Capek’s 1920 play, R.U.R.). I’m referring to the clumsy, difficult-to-remember, huh?-inducing acronym for Nearly Autonomous, Not in the Office, doing Business in their Own Time Staff. People who set their own hours while working at home. (Or PWSTOHWWAH, if you will.)

Empowered by their mobile devices and remote access to the corporate network, nanobots put in long hours, sometimes seven days a week—just not at their desks.

So write David Pauleen and Brian Harmer in Away From the Desk . . . Always,” in MIT Sloan Review

A Wall Street Journal Report podcast discusses (a bit drily, I must advise) how to evaluate and motivate this breed of out-of-office employee. I have one motivational tip: don’t refer to such employees with a word meaning “ultra-tiny, invisible robot.” Doesn’t look good on a business card.

Besides, wouldn’t Nearly Autonomous, Not in the Office, doing Business in their Own Time Staff lead to nanitodbitot? And, now that I think about it, wouldn’t Mobile Out of Office lead to mooo?

01.02.09

WOTYwoot

Posted in jargon, language change, neology, wordplay at 7:37 am by Bill Brohaugh

As a kid, I listened to Milwaukee top-40 station WOKY, though stating that might be oversharing. Today the radio is tuned to station WOTY, playing not the top pop songs but the top pop words. WOTY: an acronym for Word of the Year, and authorities of various stripes have recently announced a bunch of them for 2008. Here’s a not-so-comprehensive roundup (with a strong bow to eagle-eye Fritinancy for her great coverage of the topic); don’t touch that dial:

  • Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year: bailout, “a rescue from financial distress.”
  • Oxford University Press: hypermiling, the “attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques.”
  • Webster’s New World Dictionary: overshare, “to divulge excessive personal information, as in a blog or broadcast interview, prompting reactions ranging from alarmed discomfort to approval.”
  • William Safire: frugalista, “a person who lives a frugal lifestyle but stays fashionable and healthy by swapping clothes, buying secondhand, growing own produce, etc.”
  • UrbanDigs.com: Crecession, “a period of economic activity where available credit is contracting and the cost of credit is rising, leading to a disruption in the credit markets and difficulties for businesses that borrow short and lend long. The result will likely be a period of asset deflation leading to a lack of growth, rising unemployment, and rising commodity inflation due to pressure on the dollar” (OK, they made it up and declared it their own word of the year, but what the hell).
  • Mark Leibovich and Grant Barrett’s Buzzwords of 2008: Lots of them. Click the link.
  • Separated by a Common Language:
    • vet (British-English-to-American-English Word of the Year), a transitive verb meaning “To examine carefully and critically for deficiencies or errors; spec. to investigate the suitability of (a person) for a post that requires loyalty and trustworthiness.”
    • meh (American-English-to-British-English Word of the Year), an interjection expressing indifference.
  • The Web of Language: Obama (you may have heard the word before)
  • Baby Name Wizard: Joe (Name of the Year).
  • Geoffrey Nunberg (in a “Fresh Air” commentary): Joe (not the name, but as an iconic reference to the common folk). And hey, it’s faux radio theme day, so you can listen to the commentary, too.
  • Fritinancy herself: (nomination for the American Dialect Society’s upcoming word of the year selection) monumentous
  • American Dialect Society: To be announced a week from today, 1/9/2009. So far the word change is leading the list of nominations, though that could change.
  • Me: susurration. Why? Nobody used it this year (not even in whispers), and they should have. It’s a beautiful word. Specific to the task at hand, I’m going to award a tie to plutoid, which Grant Barrett points out as “a new term designated by the International Astronomical Union to refer to Pluto and space objects like it,” because I like the astronomical justice given to to the space body that had been plutoed (The American Dialect Society’s 2006 Word of the Year) and now honored not with planetary status but with dictionetary status); and a phrase, “nuke the fridge,” which crystalizes why you don’t want to see the most recent Indiana Jones movie. On the other hand, why not award the now-frequently used acronym WOTY as word of the year?