OT: Quick Break. New Words.

[Dougie]

Everybody writes LOL. I don't know whether it's lots of luck or laughing out loud.

I used to think that LOL stood for "Lots of Love" which was a harmless mistake except if you put in a sympathy note.

 

[Wally East]

Sure. When written (online or on phones) a user seeking information is provided with an "app" (link or point of contact) to obtain what is sought.

- My wife uses "apps" to get bank balance or airline schedules.
- I use different "apps" to obtain weather forecasts or ball scores.​

OK?

While apps can be, more or less, the same stuff as on a website (the examples you cite are good examples), there are lot of apps that aren't. Your camera app is a prime example. An app that tracks physical activity is another. You might have a flashlight app that uses your camera's flash. (Actually, even the phone part of a smart phone uses an app.) Other apps use the Internet but aren't using anything from a website, like a traffic app like Waze. Some apps use GPS, like, say a geocaching app.

Some apps are games. Some apps play music. Some apps gather and play podcasts. Some apps translate languages.

 

[Wally East]

(see also the word "za" ).

"Za" can jump in a lake. Lines need to be drawn and that's where mine is. "Za."

Because that one extra syllable is just killing you. (not you, specifically, necessarily, just the general you)

 

[mr006]

"Za" can jump in a lake. Lines need to be drawn and that's where mine is. "Za."

Because that one extra syllable is just killing you. (not you, specifically, necessarily, just the general you)

Agree 100%, for ANY two-syllable word shortened to one, but "za" comes in handy when playing Scrabble - the only saving grace. Might as well make lemonade out of lemons .

 

[CajunHusky]

It occurs to me that most people seem to be associating the term "apps" with "applications. While in the most general sense this maybe true, the examples most people are using are actually what are called "applets". In the context given apps (or applets) are small programs (applications) written to perform rather specific functions.

So "applications" is a general grouping of programs; and "applets" are a subset of very small programs.

Both are referred to as apps what differentiates them is the context.

 

[Orangutan]

This is a bad idea because in the old, clearer world, if the reader saw "includes," he/she knew the list was partial. Now, if this takes hold -- and it seems to be doing so -- the reader has no idea whether the list is complete or not. Maybe it is, and maybe not. And a word that has a precise meaning will have lost its precision, and writers and readers will be the real losers.

Hence the lawyer-speak "including without limitation", which offends my sensibilities greatly.

Our language continues to evolve. I recently learned a couple new ones:

- An emoji is what we used to call an emoticon
​

I always thought they were two different things. An emoticon is the type of face you make with punctuation e.g. :-D and an emoji is one of these

This is of course complicated by the fact that many sites (this one included) will now automatically convert old-school emoticons to new-school emoji

Emoticons Versus Emoji