词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Internet Terms

First broadcast: February 2, 2005

Personal computers and the Internet have become vital tools for everything from communications and research to entertainment and office work. Not surprisingly, new words connected with these technologies are becoming part of common speech. VOA's Adam Phillips reports:

Internet users may be annoyed, amused or simply resigned to the number of new technical words that keep popping up in cyberspace¹, only to become so useful and familiar it is hard to imagine everyday American speech without them.

But Peter Sokolowski, a dictionary editor at the Merriam-Webster company, reminds us that, even as recently as the mid² 1990s, almost none of those technical computer and Internet terms existed.

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "And today, ten or eleven years later, there are hundreds of them. They come at us from print sources when they are talking about the Internet and then of course they come from the Internet itself."

Many of the first common computer-related terms had to with word processing, and borrowed their terminology³ from the world of the traditional office.

PETER SOKOLOWSKI:: "Words like folders⁴, desktop⁵, clipboard, bookmark and homepage. Those are words that are very comfortable to all of us. 'Homepage' was never a word before the Internet, but of course home and page separately were very common. But now it means the first Web page that you look at when you open up your computer."

TEXT: One comfortable, even cozy⁶, word that has acquired a new technical meaning is cookie.

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "Which, in Internet terms, means the piece of information that remains⁷ behind once you've visited a Web site. That word is obviously better known to most English speakers as being a little biscuit or something sweet to eat."

Mr. Sokolowski says that some new terms combine the old and the new. Take, for example, the word Wi-Fi.

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "And it sort of combines two separate words. One is wireless⁸, or technology that allows for wireless computing⁹. So, for example, you can walk around within your house and go upstairs with your laptop and you would never have to plug it in. That's the first part of the word. And the second part, -fi, comes from hi-fi, which is the old high fidelity¹⁰ system of stereo components¹¹ which were used from the 1950s forward. But of course in this digital age, we don't say 'high fidelity' anymore. So this word is sort of a throwback and a combination at the same time.

TEXT: Even a single letter can transform the meaning of the word it precedes. The vowel¹² e, for example, which stands for electronic, changes mail into e-mail, and e-commerce becomes the multi-billion phenomenon of Internet trade. Still, Mr. Sokolowski's favorite categories of Internet terms are new combinations of old words that mean completely new things.

PETER SOKOLOWSKI:: "So you have a word like blog which came from Web log. A log is like a diary -- something where you record the events of your day or your thoughts and, in this case, on the Web. Another word like that is dot-com. We have derived¹³ it from the Internet address of so many businesses to describe the period and then the com, which means commercial, for the Internet address.

Whether a word arises from the Internet or some other sphere of activity, the folks at Merriam-Webster always use the same criterion to determine when it has actually entered the language or can be dismissed as mere¹⁴ jargon¹⁵ or slang, known and used only to insiders.

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "And that is if the words are used without an explanation or any kind of definition in running prose in a major print source. And that means in American sources, a major newspaper such as the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, a major magazine such as Time or Newsweek.

"When a word such as blog appears in those magazines or newspapers, we know that the editors of those journals expect their readers to already know what the word means. So that's when the word is ready to go into the dictionary.

Mr. Sokowloski is confident that next year's dictionary will include the word google.

PETER SOKOLOWSKI: "Because it is a word that has entered the language very, very quickly, and is being used as a verb even though it is the name of a company and people often say, I'd like to 'google' some information, or I'll 'google' you to get information, and that means using a search engine, like Google, to get information very quickly off the Internet. I can see that becoming part of the dictionary in about a year's time because it is already part of the language."

And it is part of some non-English languages as well, it seems. Even though the Internet is international, many new terms begin in English, and are then absorbed into foreign languages.

So while the French, for example, have their own word for email, Mr. Sokolowski says his research indicates that French Internet users employ the original English term most of the time, and other languages often take English Internet terms and write them in their own alphabets.

For Wordmaster, this is Adam Phillips reporting from New York.

 

1 cyberspace   

n.虚拟信息空间，网络空间，计算机化世界

参考例句：

• She travels in cyberspace by sending messages to friends around the world.她利用电子空间给世界各地的朋友们发送信件。
• The teens spend more time in cyberspace than in the real world of friends and family.青少年花费在电脑上的时间比他们和真正的朋友及家人在一起的时间要多。

2 mid   

adj.中央的，中间的

参考例句：

• Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
• He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。

3 terminology   

n.术语；专有名词

参考例句：

• He particularly criticized the terminology in the document.他特别批评了文件中使用的术语。
• The article uses rather specialized musical terminology.这篇文章用了相当专业的音乐术语。

4 folders   

n.文件夹( folder的名词复数 )；纸夹；（某些计算机系统中的）文件夹；页面叠

参考例句：

• Encrypt and compress individual files and folders. The program is compact, efficient and user friendly. 加密和压缩的个人档案和folders.the计划是紧凑，高效和用户友好。 来自互联网
• By insertion of photocopies,all folders can be maintained complete with little extra effort. 插入它的复制本，不费多大力量就能使所有文件夹保持完整。 来自辞典例句

5 desktop   

n.桌面管理系统程序；台式

参考例句：

• My computer is a desktop computer of excellent quality.我的计算机是品质卓越的台式计算机。
• Do you know which one is better,a laptop or a desktop?你知道哪一种更好，笔记本还是台式机？

6 cozy   

adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的

参考例句：

• I like blankets because they are cozy.我喜欢毛毯，因为他们是舒适的。
• We spent a cozy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

9 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

10 fidelity   

n.忠诚，忠实；精确

参考例句：

• There is nothing like a dog's fidelity.没有什么能比得上狗的忠诚。
• His fidelity and industry brought him speedy promotion.他的尽职及勤奋使他很快地得到晋升。

11 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

12 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

13 derived   

vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• Many English words are derived from Latin and Greek. 英语很多词源出于拉丁文和希腊文。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derived his enthusiasm for literature from his father. 他对文学的爱好是受他父亲的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

15 jargon   

n.术语，行话

参考例句：

• They will not hear critics with their horrible jargon.他们不愿意听到评论家们那些可怕的行话。
• It is important not to be overawed by the mathematical jargon.要紧的是不要被数学的术语所吓倒.