[Ads-l] to borg - 1994

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

I briefly searched the Usenet database to look for pertinent forms of
"borg". These citations can probably be antedated because I do not
know how to search this database effectively.

By June 1990 "was Borged" appeared in the rec.arts.startrek newsgroup.
The words referred to an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

Date: 25 Jun 90 02:31:52 GMT
From: e... at cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Erez Zadok)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek
Subject: TBoBW: a realistic resolution attempt and questions.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.arts.startrek/fYJ3M_mgMEA/PcagZC6CoTMJ

[Begin excerpt]
I think that when Picard was Borged, he was made "special".  That is,
the Borg made him more biological (read: human), than a machine (read:
borg-like).
[End excerpt]

In June 1993 the phrase "I've been BORGED" was used to describe
joining a MOO community (a MOO was a text-based online virtual reality
system). The writer, I guess, was referencing a humorous notion of
assimilation.

Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 11:30:16 -0400
Sender: "Megabyte University (Computers & Writing)" <MBU-L at TTUVM1.BITNET>
From: MIKE BENEDICT <bene... at FOX.FCASD.EDU>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.mbu-l
Subject: Re: the MOO Borg

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/bit.listserv.mbu-l/RXB_HX7L_o4/kdIF6lQkNM8J

[Begin excerpt]
I too have been reading all the chatter about the fun that's been
going in the MOO--growing envious as one who has been lurking....Then
I did an impetuous thing--I registered a character on MediaMOO---I've
been BORGED or is it MOOBORGED. I even downloaded a client and have
ventured into the LEGO room, the T/R Bar, Netorician
Headquarters....(all with no one there to confront me...[still lurking
a little]}
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sat, Jan 7, 2017 at 1:52 PM, Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com> wrote:
> 1. English/Japanese to Dutch translator Loek van Kooten writes (http://www.loekalization.com/prozcom.html <http://www.loekalization.com/prozcom.html>):
>
> ——
> The seal turns out to be nothing but a stamp of approval from Proz.com for being a good indoctrinated, brainwashed and borged citizen on their site: someone who only sings, claps and dances because of all the great miracles performed by Proz.com's divine staff.
> ——
>
> 2. He is not a native speaker of English, but Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Borg#English) has:
>
> (slang) To assimilate rivals, via corporate acquisition or religious proselytisation.
> (slang) To turn into a cyborg, to implant machinery into people with the intent of controlling or assimilating them.
>
> Usage notes
> Use of other than the infinitive is rare. Lowercase spelling also occurs, less commonly.
>
> The word is not found in the online Oxford Dictionaries.
>
> 3. Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=borged <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=borged>) takes this back to 13 May 2005 when 324430 of 9999999999999 defined it as:
>
> ——
> to be assimilated into the collective by something in an effort to forcibly take something of yours...
>
> could be your computer, clan, freedom, money, effort, technological and biological distinctiveness, or your soul....
>
> but you will know when you have been borged.
>
> you have been warned.....
> XP fucked up my system!!!! again!!!!
> ive been borged!!!!!! fuck you Bill Gates!!!! AHHHH!!!!!!!!!6^%$^$*^&^*&^#$%(*^$^
>
> RESISTANCE IS FUTILE…………
>
> ——
>
> 4. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_Who <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_Who>) says that the appearance of the “Borg” occurred first on 5 May 1989.
>
> 5. 1994 - earliest instance I find of “Borged” in Google Books:
> Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture
> by Mark Dery
> http://bit.ly/2iNVaHb <http://bit.ly/2iNVaHb>
>
> ——
> Even so, the compu-slang title reminds us that our interaction with the world around us is increasingly mediated by computer technology, and that, big by digital bit, we are being “Borged,” as devotees of _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ would have it—transformed into cyborgian hybrids of technology and biology through our ever-more-frequent interactions with machines, or with one another _through_ technological interfaces.
> ——
>
> Benjamin Barrett
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org