Word of the Year Candidate: NSFW

[Baker, John]

Actually, I think the Word of the Year should be carbon-neutral, but that's already been taken by the Oxford University Press and, I assume, is unlikely to be taken by ADS as well.  And I do think the initialism NSFW, an abbreviation for "not safe for work," is a good candidate.  It's used with Internet links to warn that the linked site contains nudity or would otherwise be seen as improper when viewed from work.  Google indicates 7,690,000 hits.  I think the term may have originated at Fark.com, where it is used frequently.  Fark's main page on September 18, 2001, included a link to "Vulva puppet gallery (Only NSFW if your boss figures out what the hell it is)," archived at http://www.fark.com/archives/index.2001-09-23.shtml.gz.
 
By 2/12/2002, the term had moved on to Google Groups, when a user posted:  "Yes, a lot of people do use the internet at work. There have been actual studies on AIM usage at work, etc. It is customary to add "Not Safe for Work" or NSFW to the post to warn people. This is also helpful if there are people around like your mom or something."
 
 
John Baker
 

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