Russell Reflects: A Light-hearted Look at HCI Vocabulary

The Washington Post's Style Invitational has once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here some 2003 winners:
1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
4. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
5. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
6. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
7. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
8. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
9. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness. etc, etc.

Relationship to HCI? Not much, though it got me thinking of a number of words that could be modified to incorporate modern technologies, and not many would be complimentary...

1. Wandows: as if by magic, you can't access your files anymore
2. competer: machine that tries to show it's smarter than you
3. Macrosoft: approach to complete world domination based on making things crash
4. Unux: collective term for the emasculation felt when a group of people are faced with an incomprehensible ">" system prompt
5. nobile: the banning of cellular phone calls
6. nublie: sexy new mobile phone

Oh, the list is endless.....

Russell Beale
School of Computer Science
University of Birmingham

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