_Symbian_

[Jonathan Lighter]

Thanks, Garson. At first I thought it was invented by Donald DeFreeze and
the Symbionese.

JL

On Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 10:59 PM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: _Symbian_
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Wilson Gray
> > Subject:      _Symbian_
> > This word is apparently not in the OED nor in the UD, in the relevant
> meaning.
>
> The denizens of Wikipedia apparently call the device a Sybian. It was
> developed in the 1980s, and The Howard Stern Show has been a recent
> locus of popularization.
>
> An online history at the sybian.com website provides a rationale for the
> name:
>
> [begin excerpt]
> Now we needed a name. For nearly four years we called it Master
> Better, MB for short, but knew we had to come up with something
> different. We finally agreed on Sybian. The Syb is derived from
> Sybaris, an ancient Greek city in southern Italy, famous as a center
> of luxurious living. A Sybarite is defined as a person who likes
> luxurious things so we now refer to the owners of Sybian by that name.
>
> I would not label these links NSFW but I do not know your work environment:
> http://www.sybian.com/sybian_history.html
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybian
>
>
> < Continuing Wilson Gray's comment>
> > http://xhamster.com/search.php?q=symbian&qcat=video
> >
> > The cited URL is that of a for-real porn site featuring the niche
> > paraphilia based on the use of the symbian, a particular kind of sex
> > toy, which is shown as it's commonly used. If you can't get ready for
> > serious pornography, take a pass on this.
> >
> > I leave the task of coming up with a definition of this object to the
> > professionals. I'm not going to try this at home!:-)
> >
> > WRT whether there be any connection with the name of the Symbian OS,
> > deponent hath no opinion.
>
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