Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Jargon

the language barrier

d. z. wang — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 22:13:59 -0800

You're talking to some people about computers when you realize that somehow, they know even less than you do. How do you figure out what they need to hear? How do you phrase it clearly, simply and accurately, but not condescendingly? How do you know when you're screwing that up, and how do you recover? And conversely, when people talk to you about computers, how do you figure out what they mean even when they are using a different set of jargon from what you've learned, or incorrect jargon, or plain don't themselves know what they mean? My job frequently requires me to discuss technical topics with people of all levels of expertise. I can handle myself just fine when I'm the more ignorant one, or when we're about equals, because I just ask a lot of questions, but somehow when I know more than the other guy, things just go south.

To give a recent example, it took me at least five minutes to explain why it would be a waste of IP space to assign every computer a static IP and also reserve it a slot in the DHCP pool. Later that same day, my boss asked me to set up some arrangement that passed through a middleman server for analysis but, in case of technical difficulty, failed down to letting clients send data directly to the destination. It was honestly ten or fifteen minutes before I realized he was saying "direct pass-through" to refer to the failsafe mode where the middleman server wasn't doing any passing at all.

green vs brown field - jargon decoder?

jennyhead — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:02:32 -0800

Businessjargon filter: 'green field' situation vs 'brown field' situation - what do these terms mean in a business context?

Better way to say "datacentre"?

TheophileEscargot — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:04:59 -0800

Is there a more elegant, grammatical or pedantic way to say "datacentre"? Both words have Latin origins, but there seems to be something clumsy about that combination. Should it be a datumcentre? One word, two words or hyphenated?

What are your examples of family jargon?

Ms. Informed — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:27:23 -0800

What are some examples of "family jargon"? For example, a friend's father once told a joke to his family that poked fun at the French. He concluded by saying, "Don't tell anyone from France." Now, within their family, "Don't tell anyone from France" means "Let's keep this between us"--and they say it even if the secret has nothing to do with the French. What are your examples of this kind of "family jargon," and what are the stories behind them? I'm looking for things that go a step beyond inside jokes--phrases that have worked their way into your family's private language. Phrases that would need to be "translated" for other people.

Thanks!

I'm looking for this Dadaist poster I saw awhile ago.

parkbench — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 11:42:18 -0800

I'm looking for this Dadaist poster I saw awhile ago. Google is failing me. I'm looking for this Dadaist poster that parodied corporate lingo/jargon in a few pages of PDFs--at the beginning it's intelligible but it quickly breaks down into utter nonsense; entire sentences comprised of non-existent newspeak and graphs that contradict themselves.

It's pretty great. But it's nowhere to be found! Anyone have a clue?

Thanks!

Why do disks drive?

unmake — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 04:11:16 -0800

Can you explain the drive in disk drive? (Why aren't they called 'readers' / what does 'drive' mean in this context exactly?)

Etymology of the term 'lunch out', ie 'freak out'?

toomuchkatherine — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:24:52 -0800

Can anyone tell me the etymology of the term "lunch out," meaning 'to freak out'? I first heard this term sometime during the '90s. I can't remember where. According to Urban Dictionary, "lunch out" is "a verb meaning to freak out or to get scared. Usually caused by getting really high, or experiencing something extremly random, surprising, or funny. Also related to tripping." Is this a surfer term or something? What's up with it? Where might I have heard it first?

What's the jargon for a "convergent" word?

mecenday — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:39:18 -0800

I'm looking for a term my professor used to use for "convergent words." What do you call a word that uses roots with similar meanings to form the same concept across two languages? (either by chance or direct-translation) No, not a cognant. A cognant would be a word that just plain comes from the same origin, and therefore is similar across two languages, like the English/Spanish pairing of "circumstance/circunstancia."

What I'm talking about is more like the English/Russian pairing of "circumstance/обстоятельства*," where "об-" means roughly "circum/around" and "стоят" means roughly "stand." Also there's "crosswalk/переход*" where "пере-" is roughly "across" and "ход" is roughly "go/walk." The roots have the same meanings, but different origins.

Wiktionary says that in Brasilian-Portuguese a "computer mouse" is called a "mouse," as a cognant with the English. However, in Portugal, a native translation with the same concept as in English (rodent) is used, "rato." What would "rato" be?

I know there's a bit of jargon to describe these "convergent" words, what is it?

*, for the sounder-outers:
обстоятельства = "obstoyatel'stva"
переход = "perekhod"

baby's arms, and apples - from where?

Rash — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:22:03 -0800

What's the source of "a baby's arm holding an apple"? Just saw it again in last week's Tom Tomorrow which reminded me of where I heard it first, "What Do You Want From Life" by the Tubes. That song's lyrics are what come up first in a Google search, but I'm wondering if that's the original?

What does "enterprise software" mean, anyway?

DrSkrud — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 08:16:46 -0800

What is "enterprise software" and how is it different from any other kind of software ever? Some context: I'm a Software Engineering student in University, and I've taken an "Enterprise Application Architecture" course last year and have read Martin Fowler's Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture book cover to cover. I'm not satisfied with the Wikipedia definition, either.

As far as I can tell, "Enterprise Software" is no different from any database-driven software project. For example, web sites like del.icio.us that track bookmarks and sites from millions of users... they have to deal with all the same scaling issues as a huge corporation but it's not "enterprise" software. Another example is content management software for a big site. (Does "enterprise" just mean "big"?)

The patterns in the aforementioned Fowler book are all characteristics of any decently designed database-driven application, and I don't see what makes them "Enterprise" at all. J2EE is "Enterprise Edition", which would imply that it's used in "enterprise software", but plenty of non-business applications use J2EE, which throws out the "business software" argument. Ruby on Rails has a lot of Fowler's enterprise architecture patterns in it, but what makes a Rails project "Enterprise"? Is blogging software "enterprise"?

As far as I can tell with my (limited) experience, "enterprise" just means the software is overblown, buggy, has a lot of messy code and costs a few million dollars. (I read a lot of TheDailyWTF and I'm interning at an "enterprise").

So when a teammate on a school project says "We should use C# because it's 'more enterprise'", I cringe and ask "what does that mean"? I still haven't heard a satisfying answer.

Does "enterprise software" mean anything to you, hive mind?

List vs Laundry List

otherwordlyglow — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:20:05 -0800

When does a "list" become a "laundry list"? This has been bugging me a lot recently as the term seems to have hit the tipping point. Everywhere I look/read people are enumerating "Laundry Lists" but to me, they seem to just be plain old Lists. What's the difference between the two? Is Laundry List just a way of saying List that sounds smarter? Is there a subtlety between the two that I'm missing? It's kind of a simple question that I hate to waste my question on but every single time I hear the phrase it jumps out at me so I need to know if I'm justified in being annoyed at it. I'm sure there's a correct usage (informal? overly detailed?) somewhere but I don't know what it is.

"Barnacle" code?

pax digita — Wed, 31 May 2006 12:05:34 -0800

What does "barnacle code" mean to programmers? I'm finding a reference to "barnacle code" in some CFML I'm reviewing. I know what crustacean-type barnacles are, but why the allusion? The comments in the code say "barnacle code to fix an elusive bug" and there's nothing special the code itself.

The term is not in the Hacker's Dictionary, and everybody who knows this code is away....grrrr. Anybody want to take a stab? Thx in advance.

Medical jargon help?

scratch — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:10:59 -0800

"tab-gen abortion" "a demonstration set of lams, pale green matchsticks made of compressed seaweed." These phrases occur in a novel I'm reading; the speaker is (presumably) a gynecologist or CNP who is counseling a patient about a second-trimester abortion. I Googled and searched various medical encylopedias and came up empty. What is "tab-gen"? And are lams some kind of abortifacient suppository? Thanks.

A speaker by any other name?

Gucky — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 16:16:42 -0800

What's a nickname for the speakers on a stereo? I know old school headphones are sometimes called "cans" and there has to be similar nicknames for speakers, but being neither an audiophile or someone who's down with the slang, I'm at a loss.

I'm not looking for the most widely used nickname. In fact, outdated, quirky or uncommon slang would probably be cooler for what I'm writing.

Thanks much.

I know what wtf means, but wtf?

longsleeves — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 17:58:28 -0800

Is there anywhere a FAQ or tutorial to help newer people such as me with understanding short-hand terms such as "FARK", or what's the difference between "funny" and "teh funny"? I've spent some time here and elsewhere and have figured out some terms, but others elude (exclude?) me.

Meaning [this is good]

teece — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 12:15:23 -0800

What's the cool-kid, hackerish and full definition of the phrase: [this is good]? I've seen it around, on the message boards of many web sites, and email discussion lists, and I usually just interpreted it literally. Then I saw it on a woman's T-shirt on Flickr, with many comments about the photo and shirt saying how neat it was and talk about a "first rule" (see Flickr photo here). Sure, it's kind of geeky cute: the wearer of the T-Shirt is good. OK.

Is there something to this phrase I'm missing, or is this just people being exceptionally geeky?

What the heck is a "Grease-man"?

indiebass — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 09:22:57 -0800

My friends and I were talking about building a cabin up North, and then we started talking like it was a 'heist' or a 'job', if you get the picture. So we designated someone as the Wheel-man, and someone else as the Grease-man, and then I asked: what's a grease-man? No one actually knew. I tried Google to no avail. Does anyone know what a Grease-man is? Are there any other *-man titles you can think up for a heist?

Origin of the term meatspace?

mediareport — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 20:33:00 -0800

Where did the term "meatspace" originate? I know it entered the OED in 2000 (alongside "gaydar," "cybersquatting" and "Frankenfood"), and I see The Word Spy credits a 1995 article about John Perry Barlow as the "earliest citation," but I think I saw it in cyberpunk sci-fi before that. Anyone got an earlier appearance than 1995? (Question inspired by shmegegge.)

"Symphony" vs. "Philharmonic" in the name of an orchestra: is there a difference?

casarkos — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 12:40:21 -0800

"Symphony" vs. "Philharmonic" in the name of an orchestra: is there a difference?