Bad day at the cube farm? It might be time for a round of blamestorming. After all, if you have another salmon day like this one, you'll go postal.
America is speaking a whole new language. Obsessed by careers, wired to the Web and bombarded by news, Americans are imbuing the English language with slang inspired by the workplace and high technology.Cole Barber, a mechanical engineer at Silicon Gaming in Palo Alto, Calif., works in a "cube farm": an office where rows of cubicles take the place of private offices. When he needs a little break, he's likely to "prairie dog," popping up from his desk to see what his officemates are doing.
"Instead of asking if we have time to do something or aptitude to handle a project, (clients) want to know if we have the `bandwidth,' " said Chris Lind, an executive at public relations agency Neale-May and Partners.
A decade ago, a slightly distracted person may have been called an airhead, or "out to lunch." Today, said Gareth Branwyn, who compiles Wired magazine's monthly Jargon Watch column, he's "404."
"It's from the Web message that means a document couldn't be found; there's nothing there," Branwyn said.
Slang is nearly as old as speech itself and changes constantly, said Bernabe Feria, director of curriculum for Berlitz language schools. Writers as far back as Shakespeare have given slang a place in literature, and virtually every language has its own substandard speech, he noted.
American slang has often come from whatever dominates the public's consciousness. The Prohibition era gave rise to "hooch" and a slew of new ways to say "drunk," including "crocked" and "plastered." During the Jazz Age, men were "cats," and some were "cool." The hippie, trippy 1960s taught Americans to "turn on" to things that were often "far out."
Today, with so many people working and watching the stock market lift their 401 accounts, business is on people's minds. So it's no wonder, experts say, that many of today's slang terms come from the office.
Some more from Branwyn's compilation:
- From the popular workplace comic strip, to be "Dilberted" is to be exploited and/or oppressed by the boss.
- The "ohnosecond" is the minuscule fraction of time in which you realize you've made a big mistake.
- "Blamestorming" describes the corporate ritual of sitting in a group discussing why a project failed or a deadline was missed.
- A "salmon day" is a day spent swimming upstream, only to get nowhere in the end.
Web sites nearly all have an "FAQ," a list of frequently asked questions. A recent guide to e-mail etiquette given to Cowles Business Media employees approved the occasional use of BTW (by the way), FWIW (for what it's worth) and RTM.
FYI, that means read the manual.
If all this sounds just a little too hip, a tad too contrived, that, too, is a sign of the times, linguists say.
"Slang has a certain raciness, a lack of formality," said Feria. "That's why it is not all usable in standard situations."
It's also no coincidence that many of the people well versed in the new slang work in the high-tech industry. The Silicon Valley subculture of long hours, a highly technical discipline and young workers is fertile ground for creating a common language, Feria said.
For example, Eric Middleton, a sales representative for Oracle Corp., must carry a beeper for his job. He said his colleagues use the word "beepilepsy" to describe the way people twitch when their pagers vibrate. The term came to them the way much of the current slang travels - via e-mail.
Graham Spencer, a founder of Internet company Excite Inc., said while it's not quite true that techies rely solely on e-mail, they may dub their personal meetings "interfaces."
"It's a very insular community, and sometimes we are guilty of communicating only with each other," he said.
Of course, not everyone talks this way. Complaining about "geeksploitation" may fly in Silicon Valley, but probably not in an accounting firm or a department store, experts say.
The young hipsters coining the phrases may need to be especially cautious, said Bruce Tulgan, founder of Rainmaker Thinking, a consulting group centered on Generation X.
"If you're speaking in a way that's not familiar to managers or to older co-workers, it can give the impression of disrespect or arrogance," Tulgan said.
What makes some slang terms stick (like "cool" or "kid") while others slide right back out of popular culture (think "gnarly" and "grody") is difficult to determine, Feria said.
"Going postal," inspired by a rash of workplace shootings by post-office employees, may stick, Branwyn said, noting that it's appeared in news articles and movies.
Others may be obsolete already, Feria said.
"It's almost a whim," he said. "Words constantly come and go. Languages are living things."
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Office lingo
Have you listened to your co-workers lately? The current business jargon is inspired by high technology and transmitted with the push of a button via e-mail.
Dilberted To be exploited and/or oppressed by the boss
Ego surfing Scanning the internet or databases looking for references to one's name
Geeksploitation Taking advantage of young high-tech workers willing to work long hours if bolstered by junk food, flexible schedules and no dress code
I-Way The abbreviation for information superhighway
Keypal An e-mail pen pal
Ohnosecond The minuscule fraction of time in which you realize you've made a big mistake
Prairie dogging Popping up from your cubicle to glance around and see what your co-workers are doing
Salmon day A day spent swimming upstream, only to get nowhere in the end
Screenagers Online teen; also used to define the 18-to-24 age group, who grew up in front of TV or computer screens
Uninstalled A euphemism for being fired
Source: "Jargon Watch: A Pocket Dictionary for the Jitterari", by Gareth Branwyn