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> “Beginning in the summer of 1838, there developed in Boston a remarkable vogue of using abbreviations. It might well be called a craze,” wrote the famed etymo

> “Beginning in the summer of 1838, there developed in Boston a remarkable vogue of using abbreviations. It might well be called a craze,” wrote the famed etymologist Allen Walker Read. Wait, you mean we weren’t the generation to make acronyms trendy? (AFAIK, WTF, LOL, JK, BRB…)

from-nibly 2y ago
Nope, we are just the weaklings that chose to spell things korectly
- SamBam 2y ago
  I still remember "pwned" as a misspelling of "owned." Then of course there were all the other l33t spellings, but pwnd seemed to be the one most specifically about mistyping. Gen-Zers sometimes end statements with "Periodt." They also have lots of other phonetic ones, like "rizz," but that's more about the phonetics and less about the humor in misspelling.
  - andoando 2y ago
    I never connected that pwned was a mispelling of owned, I always thought it was a word of its own.
    - emmelaich 2y ago
      More of a typo than a spello in the sense that P is next to O on the qwerty keyboard so gets hit occasionally, especially in the tense rush of online gaming. Similar to zomg, because z is next to the shift key and they were going for OMG.
      - hunter2_ 2y ago
        And then there's this!1!!eleven Apparently due to intermittent shifting of 1 into an exclamation point, occasionally yielding multiple 1s, which can look like a random eleven, which is humorous to skip to directly.
b112 2y ago
A lot of office memos had short forms, and things such as IOU were common general use. IOU has to be up there for letter=word sound. Always loved that one. In terms of generations, I remember lots of short forms on BBSes, initialisms like wtf were used on radio during WWII, it's a long history. I suspect every written language used them. I seem to recall Roman latin use having some. Saving writing with ink pot and feather quill, probably motivated better than keyboard presses. edit: Wow! Just read the article, and saw this: K.G. for "no go" (as if spelled "know go") Pre-widescale internet, I watched a movie from the 1950s I think, maybe 30s. They were discussing something, two male actors, black and white movie, and one purposed something. The other responded "that's cage-y". At the time, and in context, it seemed like the "word" meant just "constricted" or some such. The guy was disgusted when he said it, and his body language and vertical cutting motion with his hand, indicated "no". Yet I was confused enough, that when a dictionary didn't help, I stored it away. What an incredible pleasure to have an answer now, 30 years later. Anyhow, it seems this was still popular enough to be in a 30s to 50s era movie.
- Tijdreiziger 2y ago
  In Japanese, ‘NG’ is used for ‘not good’. (Japan seems to like its pseudo-English initialisms — BGM [background music], SNS [social network services], OP/ED [opening/ending], etc.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_Latin_alphabetic_abbreviations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_Latin_alphabe...
  - jhbadger 2y ago
    A lot of languages like pseudo-English words. German calls mobile phones "Handy". Apparently it dates back to a defunct brand name of Motorola walkie-talkies (two-way handheld radios common from the 1940s-1990s).
- aptly_yclept 2y ago
  That's interesting to me, for I (a non-native speaker) am well familiar with the word 'cagey' from more contemporary movies and books. The dictionaries I checked list etymology as unknown, however. I'll see if I can't ask one about the "K.G." hypothesis.
andrewinardeer 2y ago
I would think that due to the rampant narcissism that has become a blight on society and which is way above and beyond any levels seen by any previous generation that the word 'selfie' is a newly coined word.

from-nibly 2y ago

Nope, we are just the weaklings that chose to spell things korectly

SamBam 2y ago
I still remember "pwned" as a misspelling of "owned." Then of course there were all the other l33t spellings, but pwnd seemed to be the one most specifically about mistyping. Gen-Zers sometimes end statements with "Periodt." They also have lots of other phonetic ones, like "rizz," but that's more about the phonetics and less about the humor in misspelling.
- andoando 2y ago
  I never connected that pwned was a mispelling of owned, I always thought it was a word of its own.
  - emmelaich 2y ago
    More of a typo than a spello in the sense that P is next to O on the qwerty keyboard so gets hit occasionally, especially in the tense rush of online gaming. Similar to zomg, because z is next to the shift key and they were going for OMG.
    - hunter2_ 2y ago
      And then there's this!1!!eleven Apparently due to intermittent shifting of 1 into an exclamation point, occasionally yielding multiple 1s, which can look like a random eleven, which is humorous to skip to directly.

b112 2y ago

A lot of office memos had short forms, and things such as IOU were common general use. IOU has to be up there for letter=word sound. Always loved that one. In terms of generations, I remember lots of short forms on BBSes, initialisms like wtf were used on radio during WWII, it's a long history. I suspect every written language used them. I seem to recall Roman latin use having some. Saving writing with ink pot and feather quill, probably motivated better than keyboard presses. edit: Wow! Just read the article, and saw this: K.G. for "no go" (as if spelled "know go") Pre-widescale internet, I watched a movie from the 1950s I think, maybe 30s. They were discussing something, two male actors, black and white movie, and one purposed something. The other responded "that's cage-y". At the time, and in context, it seemed like the "word" meant just "constricted" or some such. The guy was disgusted when he said it, and his body language and vertical cutting motion with his hand, indicated "no". Yet I was confused enough, that when a dictionary didn't help, I stored it away. What an incredible pleasure to have an answer now, 30 years later. Anyhow, it seems this was still popular enough to be in a 30s to 50s era movie.

Tijdreiziger 2y ago
In Japanese, ‘NG’ is used for ‘not good’. (Japan seems to like its pseudo-English initialisms — BGM [background music], SNS [social network services], OP/ED [opening/ending], etc.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_Latin_alphabetic_abbreviations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Japanese_Latin_alphabe...
- jhbadger 2y ago
  A lot of languages like pseudo-English words. German calls mobile phones "Handy". Apparently it dates back to a defunct brand name of Motorola walkie-talkies (two-way handheld radios common from the 1940s-1990s).
aptly_yclept 2y ago
That's interesting to me, for I (a non-native speaker) am well familiar with the word 'cagey' from more contemporary movies and books. The dictionaries I checked list etymology as unknown, however. I'll see if I can't ask one about the "K.G." hypothesis.

andrewinardeer 2y ago

I would think that due to the rampant narcissism that has become a blight on society and which is way above and beyond any levels seen by any previous generation that the word 'selfie' is a newly coined word.