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 .

 

[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