"sketch out"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 3:10 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 11:23 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>> Rando
>
> The former M.I.T. campus guesthouse was universally known as "Random
> Hall." If it had another, official designation, that designation was
> never used by "Tech tools." Why that (nick)name? Because "any _random_
> person" could stay there, of course.
>
> What's referred to as a "major" elsewhere is called a "course" at The
> Tech/The Tute - used in linguistics, since only random students were
> M.I.T. grads familiar with the traditions of The Tech - and given a
> number. Linguistics, once "Course 23," is now "Course 24."
>
> Anyway, out-course students in general were called "random" by
> in-course students. It wasn't just a "computer-hack" thing. And it was
> definitely disparaging, but in a "friendly" way, as in the reference
> to Harvard as "a red-brick school both up the street and up the river
> from The Tech."

Thanks, Wilson. As I suggest in the On Language column, I do think MIT
students had a lot to do with the mainstreaming of "random", and it's
good to know that non-hackery types were also in on it.

Here's a looong rumination about the rise of "random" for which I was
interviewed (I talk about MIT again):

http://www.theawl.com/2011/03/our-obsession-with-the-word-random-fear-of-a-millennial-planet

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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