Comments on: Teaching You Tech Terms Today

By: Sandi

Sandi — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 03:59:22 +0000

“Pity the Fool”

By: socrates

socrates — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:09:48 +0000

Yes, the soft vs hard ‘g’ is still found in common usage, and technically proper. If you caught the original ‘Back to the Future’ movie, you’ll recall the reference to 1.21 jig-a-watts there. Even though it’s allowed you still might get giggled at by someone who disagrees, if you care about that sort of thing.

Remember though, that a dictionary merely reports or reflects what a word means, or how a word is found to be used in society at a particular point in time. So when one encounters a word, they can attempt to determine what it meant in the conversation where it was heard, or the document in which it was used. Over time, dictionary entries are fluid, and will change. It isn’t meant to be an authoritative source on what it does or doesn’t mean. The dictionary entry comes *after* usage in society, instead of the other way around.

I saw an interview with the Editor-in-Chief at Merriam-Webster several years ago, and she addressed the same misunderstanding as well.

By: JonasJudah

JonasJudah — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 13:51:20 +0000

I heard sometime ago that gigabyte was commonly
pronounced with a hard “g” instead of a soft “g”. Any truth to that?

By: JD Lasica

JD Lasica — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:04:59 +0000

Hmm. I’m probably gonna still call my cell phone a cell phone even if it doesn’t use cellular towers.

After all, we call this thing we’re typing on a “computer,” even though we do very little computing on it.

By: shaolindreams

shaolindreams — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:17:10 +0000

.. where the hell in the uk are you from.. we dont call our drink POP.. FIZZY DRINKING .. get it right bruv.

By: shaolindreams

shaolindreams — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:15:14 +0000

are we talking the Queens english.. or american english :p

bloody sidewalk. :p

By: socrates

socrates — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:26:54 +0000

Equally annoying to me is when folks call *anything* that plays mp3s an “ipod.” Everything that you blow your nose into isn’t a Kleenex, every adhesive bandage that you put on a boo-boo isn’t a Band-Aid, and everything that plays mp3s isn’t a frackin’ ipod… Geez…

By: xyourfitx

xyourfitx — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:21:37 +0000

aha good point about the pop and coke thing, me being from the UK we actually do call our drinking liquids pop

By: TehTofuBoi

TehTofuBoi — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 21:54:33 +0000

so do i now call my dog a “k-9/foot warmer”

By: aaronmakowski

aaronmakowski — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:01:03 +0000

i hate when poeple call mp3 players, mp3s’s, oh man i lost my mp3, well godownlaod it again, no that thing that makes soudns, OH, MORONS

By: Juicetin19

Juicetin19 — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 21:03:17 +0000

The “flashing lights on his wall” are or is a binary clock. IF you don’t know what a binary clock is, wiki it.

By: banndersnatch

banndersnatch — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 04:20:26 +0000

you mean england.

in scotland we say “mobile” not mobile phone, not sure what the welsh say for that word,

By: DannnyL

DannnyL — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 03:57:24 +0000

In Britain we use the term mobile phone

By: 1upDuc

1upDuc — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:08:49 +0000

Who still uses a Palm??

By: alphaxion

alphaxion — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:06:41 +0000

how about PAT test?

Portable Appliance Test er, test… it’s a poorly constructed acronym!

Lets try to say no to these things that elicit mistakes, surely they are the grammatical form of entrapment ;)