Following up on our earlier conversation about the correct pronunciation of apricot, a listener who grew up among the apricot orchards of California’s Santa Clara Valley says the locals there pronounce it simply cot, and would speak of getting a...
Nerd used to be a term of derision, connoting someone who was socially awkward and obsessed with a narrow field of interest. Now it’s used more admiringly for anyone who has a passion for a particular topic. Linguists call that type of softening...
nerd bird n.— «The “nerd bird” lives on, after all. A week after American Airlines said it would cease the San Jose-Austin daily service that bore that nickname, Alaska Airlines said Monday it will inaugurate daily service between the technology...
lobbycon n.—Gloss: to attend the site of a professional conference, without enrolling or paying entrance fees, for the purpose of meeting with attendees in the site’s public spaces. Note: From lobby + conference. «Some of Silicon Valley’s digerati...
boulevard stop n.— «Many people don’t understand that a signal can be good…in a way that moves traffic through better than a boulevard stop.» —“Final Mayfield approval delayed” by Jocelyn Dong Palo Alto Weekly (California) May 18, 2005. (source:...
happy-clappy adj.— «You don’t have to be a happy-clappy Silicon Valley hippie to see that computer-driven virtual reality is set to upstage Euro Disney before the millennium. » —“In This Sterile Diorama, Life Is but a Theme” by Stephen...