Is There a Term for Window-Shopping Online?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Sandy Smith from LaBelle, Wisconsin calling.

How are you and Grant doing today?

Well, I’m doing great. Grant, how are you doing today?

Super duper. Sandy, it’s nice to talk to you. What’s going on?

Well, I called my daughter, Lizzie, the other day and asked her what she was doing.

She said she was window shopping on Amazon.

So we thought that was kind of cool, but we were wondering if there is a word for that.

So we thought of YouTube.

Window shopping on Amazon.

So instead of just saying going online shopping, you want something a little more concise?

Well, yeah.

You know.

Instead of window shopping.

Well, Sandy, was she doing it just for the fun of it, or was she on a mission to get something specific?

Just for the fun of it.

Well, in the early days of the Internet, people just said screen shopping.

It comes up in a couple early dictionaries that I have.

Browsing works.

You do browse stores, right?

You browse merchandise if you’re physically there, and you do browse the internet.

But it’s still not quite right because if you say I was browsing the internet,

People don’t know if you were just reading news or social media

Or if you were shopping for cute onesies.

Well, we can borrow from some other languages.

One of my favorite ones is in French.

This is completely unusable in English, but I’m going to share it anyway.

They say faire de l’esprit, which means literally to lick the windows.

That’s how they say to go window shopping.

The sense is that you’re staring longingly at things you will not or cannot buy.

Faire de l’esprit, to lick the windows.

You don’t want to be licking your computer screen, though.

No, I’ll lick your Windows 10 installation.

And then there’s an expression that Martha brought up on the show once,

Which in one meaning, it’s Mexican-Spanish slang.

In one meaning, it means to kind of scope out good-looking people,

And it’s echar un taco de ojo, to throw a taco with the eye.

But in another meaning, it can mean to look but not buy.

Of course, window shopping itself in English can also mean to kind of cast

Admiring glance at all the good-looking people around you without any intention of, you know,

Really going after them or asking them for dates or anything. But Martha, we have to mention the

Canadian one. That’s maybe, maybe we can just borrow that one. What do you think? Oh, that’s a fun one.

Yeah, I like that one. Twacking. Twacking. That’s Newfoundland, right? Yeah, yeah, you hear it mostly

In Newfoundland. Let’s go twacking. It’s a window shopping. Dates back about 100 years,

Probably from a British dialect term, which originally meant to be indecisive or something

Along those lines. But for some reason, just kind of landed in Newfoundland and stayed there.

So why don’t we, Sandy, why don’t we just coin a word right now, and we’re going to borrow that

Newfoundland term and say that if you’re window shopping on the internet, you’re twacking.

Okay, that sounds great.

I will let her know.

That works.

Yeah, it works.

No?

Yeah, instead of computer hacks, you have computer twacks.

I like it.

Okay, sounds great.

Do you have a better idea?

Yeah, do I have a little reluctance in your voice, Sandy?

Yeah, she sounds like she’s ready to put us in a home, Martha.

Well, you know, I will definitely tell her about that one.

What do you say, though, Sandy, if you’re shopping and you want to tell somebody in your family that you are looking for baby clothes and you mean online, how would you just casually throw the sentence out there?

I’d probably use browsing.

Okay.

I’d be browsing online, yeah.

I think I might just say shop.

I don’t know.

I like twacking.

I like twacking.

I do, too.

Oh, Sandy, thank you for the call.

I know we’ll get a lot of response.

We’ll ask everyone to send their suggestions for a new word for shopping on the Internet.

All right?

Okay.

I appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

You guys have a great day.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Sandy.