50 lines
6.0 KiB
HTML
50 lines
6.0 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
|
||
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>Chapter 2. Of Slang, Jargon, and Techspeak</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="pt01.html" title="Part I. Introduction"/><link rel="previous" href="introduction.html" title="Chapter 1. Hacker Slang and Hacker Culture"/><link rel="next" href="revision-history.html" title="Chapter 3. Revision History"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Chapter 2. Of Slang, Jargon, and Techspeak</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="introduction.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Part I. Introduction</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="revision-history.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><div class="chapter" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="distinctions"/>Chapter 2. Of Slang, Jargon, and Techspeak</h2></div></div><div/></div><p>Linguists usually refer to informal language as ‘slang’ and
|
||
reserve the term ‘jargon’ for the technical vocabularies of
|
||
various occupations. However, the ancestor of this collection was called the
|
||
‘Jargon File’, and hacker slang is traditionally ‘the
|
||
jargon’. When talking about the jargon there is therefore no convenient
|
||
way to distinguish it from what a <span class="emphasis"><em>linguist</em></span> would call
|
||
hackers' jargon — the formal vocabulary they learn from textbooks,
|
||
technical papers, and manuals.</p><p>To make a confused situation worse, the line between hacker slang and
|
||
the vocabulary of technical programming and computer science is fuzzy, and
|
||
shifts over time. Further, this vocabulary is shared with a wider technical
|
||
culture of programmers, many of whom are not hackers and do not speak or
|
||
recognize hackish slang.</p><p>Accordingly, this lexicon will try to be as precise as the facts of
|
||
usage permit about the distinctions among three categories:</p><div class="variablelist"><dl><dt><span class="term">slang</span></dt><dd><p>informal language from mainstream English or non-technical
|
||
subcultures (bikers, rock fans, surfers, etc).</p></dd><dt><span class="term">jargon</span></dt><dd><p>without qualifier, denotes informal ‘slangy’ language
|
||
peculiar to or predominantly found among hackers — the subject of
|
||
this lexicon.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">techspeak</span></dt><dd><p>the formal technical vocabulary of programming, computer
|
||
science, electronics, and other fields connected to hacking.</p></dd></dl></div><p>This terminology will be consistently used throughout the remainder of
|
||
this lexicon.</p><p>The jargon/techspeak distinction is the delicate one. A lot of
|
||
techspeak originated as jargon, and there is a steady continuing uptake of
|
||
jargon into techspeak. On the other hand, a lot of jargon arises from
|
||
overgeneralization of techspeak terms (there is more about this in the <a href="construction.html" title="Chapter 4. Jargon Construction">Jargon Construction</a> section below). </p><p>In general, we have considered techspeak any term that communicate
|
||
primarily by a denotation well established in textbooks, technical
|
||
dictionaries, or standards documents.</p><p>A few obviously techspeak terms (names of operating systems, languages,
|
||
or documents) are listed when they are tied to hacker folklore that isn't
|
||
covered in formal sources, or sometimes to convey critical historical
|
||
background necessary to understand other entries to which they are
|
||
cross-referenced. Some other techspeak senses of jargon words are listed in
|
||
order to make the jargon senses clear; where the text does not specify that a
|
||
straight technical sense is under discussion, these are marked with
|
||
‘[techspeak]’ as an etymology. Some entries have a primary sense
|
||
marked this way, with subsequent jargon meanings explained in terms of it.
|
||
</p><p>We have also tried to indicate (where known) the apparent origins of
|
||
terms. The results are probably the least reliable information in the
|
||
lexicon, for several reasons. For one thing, it is well known that many
|
||
hackish usages have been independently reinvented multiple times, even among
|
||
the more obscure and intricate neologisms. It often seems that the generative
|
||
processes underlying hackish jargon formation have an internal logic so
|
||
powerful as to create substantial parallelism across separate cultures and
|
||
even in different languages! For another, the networks tend to propagate
|
||
innovations so quickly that ‘first use’ is often impossible to pin
|
||
down. And, finally, compendia like this one alter what they observe by
|
||
implicitly stamping cultural approval on terms and widening their use.</p><p>Despite these problems, the organized collection of jargon-related oral
|
||
history for the new compilations has enabled us to put to rest quite a number
|
||
of folk etymologies, place credit where credit is due, and illuminate the
|
||
early history of many important hackerisms such as
|
||
<a href="K/kluge.html"><i class="glossterm">kluge</i></a>, <a href="C/cruft.html"><i class="glossterm">cruft</i></a>, and
|
||
<a href="F/foo.html"><i class="glossterm">foo</i></a>. We believe specialist lexicographers will find
|
||
many of the historical notes more than casually instructive.</p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="introduction.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="pt01.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="revision-history.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 1. Hacker Slang and Hacker Culture </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Chapter 3. Revision History</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
|