Words :: Technologies

Words are one of the many ways we use to communicate to each other, in our code and in daily life. As programmers, techies, and as human beings, we definitely depend on words when are unable to communicate directly: through our code and our documentation and reports, as well as instant messaging, sms, email, blogs, web pages, ... and even ... hand-written letters.

in our code

In speaking we use certain conventions, or habits, so that people can understand us. In code we have to be even more careful because computers are much more stupid than people, and need things to be very clear.

In addition, if we format our code nicely and add comments, it makes it much more useful for those humans who must read it after us — even for ourselves a few weeks later!

in daily life

There seems to be a trend in the past few years to make words longer — and harder to say! Is this a good thing?

  • strangle has become strangulate
    "Strangulation" is the noun derived from the verb "strangle". Now it seems a verb "strangulate" has been reverse-derived from that noun!
  • candidacy, a perfectly good word with a long history of use, has grown to candidature for mysterious and unknown reasons.
  • speeding has grown to over speeding
    "speeding" already means "going too fast". You can't be any faster than "too fast"!

more info

http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/e29.html
A simple explanation of "back-formation".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back-formation
A more complex discussion of "back-formation", with examples.
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/b.html
Interesting discussion!
And, for people who are less uptight about language than me: http://neologasm.org/neologasm/backformation/
fun with words!

add tech info

Send info about words to us and we will publish in this section.

Copyright © 2008 Tibetan Geeks