Re: Abbreviations

[Len Olszewski <saslpo -at- UNX -dot- SAS -dot- COM>]

Steve Fouts contributes some definitions:

> >From the "Jargon File, a comprehensive compendium of hacker slang..."

> Both entries edited:

> :flame: 1. vi. To post an email message intended to insult and
>    provoke.  2. vi. To speak incessantly and/or rabidly on some
>    relatively uninteresting subject or with a patently ridiculous
>    attitude.  3. vt. Either of senses 1 or 2, directed with
>    hostility at a particular person or people.  4. n. An instance of
>    flaming.  When a discussion degenerates into useless controversy,
>    one might tell the participants "Now you're just flaming"

Just as an observation regarding English, especially slang English, as a
living language, and also as a point of nostalgia for many of you in
roughly the same age cohort as I, the term "flaming" had quite a
different meaning when I was in college. Of course, the buildings were
also made out of logs back then, but *we* used "flaming" as an
adjective. The noun of choice here was "flamer", again quite different
than somebody who sent scathing email messages. Email, back then, was a
nothing more than a misspelled word.

The verb form with which I am most familiar, however, required
intestinal activity of a certain character, a match, and, well, never
mind. 8-)

Gawd, do I *love* etymology!

|Len Olszewski, Technical Writer |   "The fish."                      |
|saslpo -at- unx -dot- sas -dot- com|Cary, NC, USA|    -Salvador Dali                  |
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| Opinions this ludicrous are mine. Reasonable opinions will cost you.|