Archive for the ‘Nerd Word of the Day’ Category
Every day we encounter nerdy words trying to find their way into the common vernacular.
Here, I will seek them out and expose them for the phonies that they are!
Some will succeed and become common words, others will (hopefully) die a painful death!
Be sure to sign up for this site’s email notifications so that you can be notified and therefore prepared for these words as we become aware of them!
Thanks to Alexandra Gorbokon, whom I met in the Twitterverse (OH NO!!! It’s one of those words!!) and her idea for the title of this section!
In honor of today being Earth Day… today’s Nerd Word of the Day is:
Hypermiling: the attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques.
These adjustments include things like:
• driving without shoes (to increase the foot’s sensitivity on the pedals)
• parking so that you don’t have to back up to exit the space
• “ridge-riding” or driving with your tires lined up with the white line at the edge of the road to avoid driving through water-filled ruts in the road when it’s raining
“Hypermiling” was coined in 2004 by Wayne Gerdes and he even runs a website devoted to the practice.
They mention my favorite car on his website. (In pink please:-) )
In honor of today being 420 and the fact that I’ve already done a video on the origin of 420, today’s Nerd Word(s) of the Day are:
Tighten Someone’s Wig: to give someone marijuana. 1940s, from the fact that the scalp has a tightening feeling sometimes when smoking pot.*
Can you think of other funny expressions related to smoking pot?*
*HotForWords does not condone smoking pot nor does she condone putting wigs on small dogs!!!
Flashpacking: backpacking but with flash or style. An incongruous mix of “slumming it” and luxury.
Thanks to a tweet by @phillyd and his girlfriend who were setting out to flashpack last week, I was made aware of this word.
Since then I have seen a bunch of tweets on things like the 10 best Flashpacking Hostels in Europe to the Flashpacking Blog Carnival #4 
Geeksploitation: n. (geek-sploi-tey-shuh
n) The act of taking advantage of twentysomething digital workers who are flushed with pioneer enthusiasm and willing to work very long hours if bolstered by junk food, flexible work schedules, and no dress code.
I think I’m guilty of geeksploitation on myself!
- Source: Wired Magazine
In light of today being National Cleavage Day (We don’t have to work today, right?), today’s Nerd Word is:
Cleave-dar: (KLEEV.dar) n. the phenomenon by which the eyes of a heterosexual man automatically focus on the cleavage of a women, if only for a brief moment, as soon as it enters the field of vision.
You’ve all experienced cleave-dar, admit it!
Now.. can you think of any slang words for cleavage?
Kiddiot: (KID.ee.uht) n. A young hacker who isn’t smart enough to create his or her own hacking software and must rely on programs/scripts created by other people.
In light of the Conficker Internet computer worm that was supposed to take over the world yesterday, I felt that this word was timely.
It’s an even more derogatory version of the term script-kiddie.
Have you ever been the victim of a hacker?
Aprilfooleryasphyxiation: Feeling of asphyxiation one gets by too much April Foolery.
Due to the EXCESSIVE amount of April Fools jokes I have encountered today, I felt that this phenomenon demanded a word!
Thank you @whitetricycle for the suggestion!
Posted from 30,000 feet.. so I might be a bit light-headed!
Other suggested words: superaprililudification, hyperaprilioxegelis, ApriliFried, April-f’nanigans, Hyp-aprilfoolian-ism, April-Superfluousfoolsery and another favorite of mine - hyperkalendsimbecility.
Twoogle: asking your followers a question on Twitter, that could easily have been Googled instead.
Another word to go with my obsession with Twitter.
I’m certainly guilty of twoogling! Have you twoogled?
Celebutard: (suh.LEB.yoo.tard) n. A famous stupid person.
A combination of celebutante and retard.
Celebutante itself was coined in 1939 and is a combination of celebrity and debutante.
Can you think of some celebutards?
Write them below.
Tourinauts: Tourists that tag along on space flights.
The launch of the Soyuz TMA-14 this morning included another tourinaut, a repeat tourinaut mind you: Charles Simonyi.
Other tourinauts were: Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, Gregory Olsen and Anousheh Ansari – some paying as much as $20 million dollars for the trip.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin has already plopped down $5 million dollars to be a tourinaut on a future flight, but investors in Google stock have been trying hard to keep him down on Earth!
Thanks Bob for the suggestion!
Every day we encounter nerdy words trying to find their way into the common vernacular.
