Jargon Watch Email "Virus" Infects the Sun Times

[Gareth Branwyn]

Paul McFedries was kind enough to send me an article by Richard Roeper that
appeared in last week's Chicago Sun Times ("Internet lingo opens doors to
creativity," July 10, 2000). The article is basically comprised of that
annoying email message (now entitled: "New Words for the 2000s" or mutations
thereof) filled with items taken from my Wired Jargon Watch columns
published between '94 & '96.

I've written Mr. Roeper and pointed out the origins. He was actually the
first "old media" writer who asked if anyone knew the origins of this
document. He says he'll write a follow-up.

The exchange got me wondering about the prevalence of this document (which
has been circulating around the Net since late '96). I've been keeping a
list of what people rename the document as it floats through email (people
seem compelled, for some odd reason, to re-title it before passing it on).
Yesterday, I did a search on USENET and the Web. I found hundreds of hits
and the title list now numbers nearly eighty. I don't know if others will
find this at all interesting, but the title list is included below. There
are some interesting features here, such as people coopting it for their own
purposes (claiming it as "Engineer Jokes" and "IT Humor"), or it showing up
on strange newsgroups like alt.sex.spanking, alt.support.anxiety-panic and
soc.culture.venezuela. Some of my favorite titles: "Slave Terminology" (as
in office slaves, I guess), "New Age Computer Terms" (?), "Technoyuppie
slang!", and "New Words (joke but True)." Also of the note is the fact that
several people claim they've collected the list from various sources. The
word list appeared several years ago in E.J. Dionne's "Chattering Class"
column in the Wash. Post Magazine. The person who sent him the terms also
claimed that he had assembled them from various sources. Email to Mr. Dionne
went unaswered and no correction was ever published.


The title list:

New office lingo
The New Office Lexicon
New Definitions
Funny New Office Terms
WORKPLACE LINGO
New Workplace Words for the 90's..
Office Techno-Talk
Office Jargon
Updated Office Jargon
Words to describe common office behaviour
Corporate language handbook
Corporate buzzwords
Corporate Buzzwords for the new millenium
Corporate Buzzwords for 2000
New Corporate Buzz Words for the 90's...
New Corporate Speak
Business vocabulary
Business Slang for the 90¹s
Latest terms to add to your vocabulary in the late 90s office environment
Vocabulary from Generation X by Douglas Coupland (!)
Generation "X" Office Lingo
Gen-x office slang
Generation X and their office lingo
Technoyuppie slang!
Millennium lexicon
OfficeSpeak For The American Worker
Essential New Phrases
Late 90s office vocabulary
The Latest in Cyber Lingo
90s Office Vocabulary
Sayings for the 90¹s
Speech In The 90's
EXPRESSIONS SYNONYMOUS WITH THE 90'S
NEW SAYINGS FOR THE 90s
Jargon for the 90's
Modern Jargon
New Age Computer Terms
Dilbert vocabulary
Dilbertspeak
Dilbertisms
Dilbert's latest vocabulary additions
Generation Dilbert Glossary
Slave Terminology
IT jargon
Engineer Jokes
Glossary of Non-Conversion Terms (on a site about vector graphic
conversions)
Today¹s Technical Definitions (has a number of my published columns on this
page. From the Austin Women in Computers site, where they claim they've been
"collecting" these terms since 1997)
Silicon Valley Lingo
Silicon Valley Geekspeak
GeekSpeak Update
GeekSpeak... definitions from the web
SILICON VALLEY's NEW WORDS FOR THE 90's
New meanings for today's world
New Words for the 90¹s
New Words and Phrases for the 90¹s (on a page called High-Technology Comedy)
90's vocabulary
90's Dictionary
NEW WORDS FOR THE 2000s
New Terms for 2000
New Words for the New Millennium
New Words for the e-Century
NEW WORDS FOR THE NEW CENTURY (posted on the alt.sex.spanking newsgroup!)
New Dictionary Definitions
Early 00's Vocabulary
2001 Dictionary (posted on alt.support.anxiety-panic)
21st Century Office Vocabulary
Words You Must Be Familiar With in the 21st Century
Office Buzz Words... (subtitled: Office Buzz Words and Phrases for the 21st
Century)
Office Vocabulary for Y2K and Beyond
NEW WORDS BEING CONSIDERED FOR INCLUSION IN THE WEBSTER'S
DICTIONARY FOR THE NEXT CENTURY
NEW WORDS FOR THE COMING YEAR
Word Power - New Words for the Week (In this USENET posting of the list, on
alt.mountain-bike, it is combined with words/definitions swiped from one (or
more?) of Rich Hall's Sniglets books).
Dilbert's newest additions to add to your vocabulary in the late 90s office
Environment (posted on soc.culture.venezuela)
New Words (joke but True)
00's Euphemisms
Neologisms
Definitions for the modern world
Definition Humor (on a Web site for public speakers)