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Goodies from The Word Spy

Submitted by Merlin on October 3, 2005 - 4:41am.

The Word Spy

Word Spy is a fun site to track neologisms and jargon. I’ve dug it for for a long time but only occasionally remember to drop by for updates. I’m always delighted when I do.

Found a few yesterday you might enjoy:

  • electric-can-opener question - The recognition that some older, low-tech products are superior to the newer, high-tech products that are supposed to replace them.
  • sorceror’s apprentice mode - An e-mail phenomenon in which the receipt of a message causes multiple automatic messages to be sent, each of which triggers the same automatic response, resulting in a flood of messages.
  • joy-to-stuff ratio - The time a person has to enjoy life versus the time a person spends accumulating material goods.
  • mode confusion - Confusion caused by complicated digital technology, particularly when it is difficult to discern the current state or mode of a digital device.
  • normal accident - An accident that is the nearly inevitable result of technological interactions so complex that they cannot fully predicted or controlled.
  • flame sandwich - A note that consists of a negative comment surrounded by two positive comments.
in

So it must be 'mode...

Submitted by Kara McNair (not verified) on October 3, 2005 - 5:40am.

So it must be ‘mode confusion’ then when I’m annoyed that I can’t cut & paste the phone number from my address book to the telephone?

Or when I try to use the phone’s mute to mute the TV? (sadly, I have scads more examples - I must have mode dyslexia…)