10 Funniest Online Terms [infographic] | Grammar Newsletter

Technology has claimed its own corner of English, and it’s not without humor. Here are 10 of the funniest words and terms from the “interwebz”.

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1. Cappuccino cowboy/cowgirl
The first of our funny words was coined by attorney Robert Freilich. “Cappuccino cowboys” are people who desire a suburban/rural lifestyle but can’t let go of urban amenities, such as Starbucks or drive-thrus. Picture John Wayne in his 10-gallon hat with a Frappachino in one hand, scrolling through a text message on his cell with the other.

2. Double Geeking
This refers to using two computers at the same time. It is similar to, but not to be confused with, “geeking out”, which is watching t.v. with a computer nearby in order to surf during commercials; it also covers watching an NFL game on t.v. while simultaneously watching it on NFL.com. In both cases, technology is awesome.

3. Eating your own dog food
Sometimes a company that produces a product decides to use its product. Sometimes the employees are not happy about this decision, so these employees devised the term “eating your own dog food”. An example: “I work for a company that makes lousy pencils. I never have anything to write with, because we eat our own dog food.” Software companies often do this.

4. Fat Finger
This is an error in typing due to fingers much larger than the buttons, such as “I accidently texted ‘lets meeeet for dinner’–I fat fingered”.

5. Fram
When a relative/friend sends fifteen emails a day with titles like “The funniest joke”, “Take my survey”, or “Cutest kitties”, this is “fram”. Similar to spam, fram comes from a friendly source, but an inbox fills just as quickly from friendly fire.

6. Plonk
“Plonk” is a Usenet term for adding a poster to one’s kill file so that future posts are ignored; it is considered to be the sound of that blocked person hitting the bottom of the kill file: “plonk”!

The first known use:

>>Please refrain from posting to talk.bizarre until such time as you
>>cease to be an %$&^ and become at least one of: bizarre, creative,
>>or entertaining. You are welcome to dump your rotting ordure in rec.humor
>>or some similar group where your fellow mental defectives congregate.

>Make me.

*plonk*

7. Salmon Day
“Salmon Day” is a day of swimming upstream, only to die on the beach in the end. It can apply to many occupations–from farming to dentistry–though it was probably “spawned” in office settings.

8. Shareware Girl
Everyone’s favorite female at the office–someone who everyone gets along with. “Shareware Girl brought donuts today.”

9. Seagull Manager
This writer’s personal favorite, a “seagull manager” is a boss who flies in, makes a lot of pointless noise, craps all over everything, then flies away.

10. Zen-mail
Email with nothing in the body of the message is “zen-mail”. Much zen-mail is most likely caused by fat fingering the “enter” button.

New internet terms spring up every day, and they are often just as useful as they are funny, so why not share your favorite new words?

via grammar.net