[Ads-l] WOTY candidate: "twalking" = 'texting while walking'

[Laurence Horn]

"
"People who text while walking need a word to describe them"
--I guess "dearly departed" or "corpses-in-waiting" aren't sufficiently
specific.  But I agree that "twalkers", like its referents, doesn't have a
promising future.
LH

On Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 10:33 AM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 9:36 AM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > Not sure how brand new it is, but I encountered it (the term, not the
> > activity) for the first time today, in a piece on the first page of the
> > Times Business section. Not a brilliant coinage, but I suppose an
> > inevitable one, especially since it seems to conjure both "tweeting" and
> > "talking" as well.  Maybe for the "unlikely to succeed" category?
> >
>
> Back in 2015 I wrote a Wall Street Journal column about suggested terms for
> the walking-while-texting phenomenon, including "wexting" and "distracted
> walking." Those who text while walking have been called "petextrians,"
> "pedtextrians," or "digital deadwalkers."
>
> https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-do-you-call-a-reckless-texter-1451407390
>
> None of those have caught on since then, and I can't see "twalking" being
> any more successful. But keep in mind that we've retired the "least likely
> to succeed" category in our WOTY voting (along with some other unloved
> categories).
>
> --bgz
>
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>

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