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I came across the word "BlackBerry-ing" in this New York Times article introducing New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s "Kitchen Diplomacy."

More grizzled legislators were less impressed, with one senator recalling that during a question-and-answer period, "I was in the middle of BlackBerry-ing."

Though I guess it's a figurative remark insinuating "sit on the fence," I may be wrong. I have no clue where to find out what "BlackBerry-ing" means from the context of the above sentence. Can anybody tell me?

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IMO, the senator should have said: "I was in the middle of using my BlackBerry". – muntoo Jan 29 '11 at 5:34
I don't know where that "gorgeous party" came from. I can't see the word "gorgeous" anywhere in the linked article, and it really looks out of place in the question title. – FumbleFingers Aug 12 '11 at 14:49

1 Answer

up vote 6 down vote accepted

BlackBerrying simply means using one's BlackBerry.

BlackBerry

So the senator found the question-and-answer session to be so boring that he used his BlackBerry to browse the Web, or check his emails, or something like that.

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RegDwight. Thank you for your quich reply. Twitteing - that I can understand. But it's so hard for an old man like me to catch up new fashion and buzz words derived from cyber world. – Yoichi Oishi Jan 29 '11 at 2:54
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@Mr. X: well, morphologically, they certainly are. They do have to get some traction, though. Google returns 17.5k results for BlackBerrying, but nothing reliable for SonyEricssoning, Nokiaing, or even iPhoneing. – RegDwighт♦ Jan 29 '11 at 3:23
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@Mr. X. The poster was asking for the meaning of a word found in an article. That the word wasn't an actual word but an expression of corporate America is irrelevant. One still needs to understand what was mean regardless of whether or not the word is considered standard. – Sylverdrag Jan 29 '11 at 15:21
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Bonus points for a freehand circle around "Blackberry". – kiamlaluno Feb 12 '11 at 11:45
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It's worth adding that colloquial English is perfectly happy for people to 'invent' words based on either common nouns or proper names: "I was sitting there, happily iPadding away..." (using an iPad) "So, take-away tonight? Are we kebab-ing or Chinese-ing?" (getting a take-away meal from a kebab shop or a Chinese restaurant) – user11900 Aug 12 '11 at 3:03
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