Questions tagged [internet]
Questions about Internet-related English words and phrases.
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Should the words "internet" and "web" be capitalized?
There seems to be some inconsistency on whether people capitalize the words internet and web (as in World Wide Web) as proper nouns. What is the official ruling on when or if these words should be ...
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Capitalizing a lower case screen name at the beginning of a sentence
When starting a sentence with a lower case pseudonym, such as a screen name of a user account on a website, should it be capitalized? Or are there different cases where it would and would not be ...
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One word for a person who sees a message but doesn't reply?
There are some people who will receive a message, see it, but don't reply to it. Is there a word for such people?
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What do you call social network accounts owned by the same person?
Say there's a person who has registered more than one account on the same social network and writes from these accounts pretending they belong to different people. What would you call such accounts?
...
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History of "dummy" as adverb?
The meme-y term "dummy thicc" uses "dummy" as an intensifier modifying "thicc" (meaning curvy). How common is this usage of "dummy"? How long has it been around?...
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When was the term "Web site" (or "website") first used?
I've been researching the origins of the World Wide Web, so basically sifting through CERN reports and Usenet posts from 1989-1993, but I've noticed that the terms "Web site," "website," "web-site," ...
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Approximately when did the term "meme" reach the tipping point into widespread popularity on the internet?
When you look up the etymology of the word "meme", you find a bunch of stuff talking about its origins in Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene of course, originally as a term to refer to an ...
CommunityBot
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Should I use capitalization when mentioning a domain name?
I maintain a product/brand that has a website. For the purpose of this question, the product is called Acme and the site is https://acme.com .
What's more correct when referring to the site in ...
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Blogosphere: what is it?
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus :
all the blogs (= records of personal thoughts and opinions) on the
internet, and the people who write or read them
Cambridge Business ...
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What is the terminology for the states of network connectivity?
When describing the connectivity of a system to a network, are there unambiguous terms for if a member of the network should/can communicate over the network?
Network Communicable
Can
Cannot
Should ...
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What are the origins of "tech" as an abbreviation for "technology?
I'm trying to trace the origins and rise in popularity of the abbreviation "tech" from "technology." From what I can tell, the term began taking off in popular culture around the ...
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Word for registering a domain name of a competitor (or known name) and redirect it to your own website
I'm in a niche hobby, and recently there's been a very disgusting trend happening: webshops registering the domain names of other shops with only minor, but very common typos; or register a domain ...
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"Whn U Ck Me, U WL Fnd Me Sez da Lord." in this picture (publicity)
Does the style (if it is) shown in the picture below have a particular name?
“Whn U Ck Me, U WL Fnd Me Sez da Lord”
In full: When you seek me, you will find me says the Lord.
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Which is correct: "web host" or "web hoster"?
Which is the best way to refer to a company that hosts your website:
My web host supports Ruby.
or
My web hoster supports Ruby.
or
My web hosting service supports Ruby.
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Can the term "ProTip" used in a non-offensive context?
The definition for "ProTip" in Urban Dictionary states:
n. to distill important knowledge about a subject and share it with those new to said subject.
often used in internet forums to criticize ...
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Correct verb to go to a website - open, surf, navigate?
I work as a web developer, and often times have to instruct someone to open some page. I usually write "Navigate to https://example.com/something", but I feels a bit pretentious. On the ...
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Why is the Internet being considered a person now? [closed]
This is not an isolated case; I've been noticing quite a bit lately that news articles are referring to "people in general" or "a lot of people" as "the Internet." Here's ...
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Why is the plural acronym "CSS" treated as singular?
CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, which is a plural phrase. One would say:
Cascading Style Sheets are used to provide a central location for all of the stylings of a project.
However, it ...
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Who invented "dooblidoo"?
The word dooblidoo is used by several different youtube channels as a different word for the youtube description bar. I've seen it used by the vlogbrothers and by PBS Idea Cahnnel.
Who was first to ...
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Online rhyme dictionary/rhyming resource that lists rhymes by vowel sound (assonance)
Anyone know of an online rhyming dictionary or rhyme resource that lists rhymes by vowel sound (assonance)? RhymeZone.com doesn't have such an option.
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Usage of + or ++ in emails
I have been seeing and using the symbols + or ++ whenever a new recipient is added to an existing email thread along with the original recipients in To or Cc.
Just curious about how this came into ...
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Is there a more general term for "googling" that doesn't imply a particular search engine?
Nowadays lots of people use the word "google" as a verb, past tense "googled", which generally means to search the web using Google's search engine. When used as a gerund the word is typically "...
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Origin of "upmod"
What is the origin of the term "upmod" that is used by some people as a synonym of "upvote"? ("Downmod" also exists for the opposite action.)
I found a Reddit thread that raises the question but doesn'...
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Word Choice - "hope all is well, all things considered"
In email, and other written messaging is it appropriate (given the current state of the world) to open with something like "Hi XX, I hope you are doing well, all things considered."? I have ...
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Where does the term "Smurfing" come from?
In multiplayer online gaming, the term "Smurf" (noun) is used to refer to an experienced player who creates a new account for the purposes of being matched against inexperienced players for easy wins. ...
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In "download", where does the "down" direction come from?
I just realized that the directions in "UPload" and "DOWNload" seem arbitrary to me as a non-native English speaker. I took a look at a couple of dictionaries and they said that this word is a result ...
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What does "drop" mean in this context?
Here is a first paragraph of a Meta SE post. It has a common word, "drop," that I don't understand in this context (the bolding is mine):
Recently, it was announced that the "Hot on Meta" ...
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Search results in results
"Term has X search results"
"A search for term has X results*
"A search for term resulted in X results"
Is anyone else confused by this? A "search" generally "results" in something, but lacking an ...
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Is mentioning full name on email replies considered rude? [closed]
For example:
If someone replies "Sure Deepak Mishra :)" or "Sure Deepak :)".
Should "Sure Deepak Mishra :)" look offensive to me or is it not good email etiquette?
Is using a person's first name ...
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What is it called when someone types a random string of characters in an online conversation? [duplicate]
We can often see in online group conversations messages composed of random letters like "fjqofudnelfi" as a response to something surprising or unexpected.
Is there a name for this kind of "behaviour"...
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Usage of the noun "aesthetic" to refer to a set of artistic principles and motifs
Is it non-standard to use the term "aesthetic" to refer to a set of artistic principles and motifs that define a particular artist or artistic movement? From Wiktionary's entry for aesthetic:...
CommunityBot
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Do people pluralize "WiFi" with an "s"?
I'm in a friendly argument with a supervisor about this one, and I'd like some data: Does one say "WiFis" when referring to multiple WiFi networks, or does one say "WiFi"?
I suppose alternately, one ...
CommunityBot
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What does "Potato Cat" mean when you point this to a person?
I saw this phrase many times on Twitter. But, I don't know the exact usage or meaning this phrase portrays. Can anyone please enlighten me with the definition you think is accurate! Thanks in advance!
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What word or phrase should be used to describe this website line?
This website has a line that says "David -> Labs -> Lab".
What word or phrase should be used to describe this line? A menu line? A navigation line? A page path line?
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Proper form of "user request"
The context is an Internet platform to which http requests are sent. In a sentence like this:
The system behaves differently when users' requests increase.
what is the correct usage of user request ...
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Term for "people paid to post bad reviews of a product"
There is a Chinese term 网路水军 (wǎnglù shuǐjūn) for people paid to attack a particular target on the Internet. I've seen "spammers" as the English for this expression, but to my mind a spammer usually ...
CommunityBot
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Where did the term "flame war"/"flaming" come from?
I found this term on the history of Tanenbaum and Torvalds debate, but I couldn't find the origin of the term.
I've understood the meaning (from UrbanDictionary):
A flame war is a heated argument ...
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How can you tell someone you want to talk to them over a text based medium?
I use chat programs and often confuse people when I say, "I spoke to…" or "I had a conversation with…" people, when they are remote. People think that I meant that I had a face-to-face or at least a ...
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What is the best term to categorize a lolcat image and text?
I've seen the captions described as a dialect, patois, "kitty pidgin" and language play which is well and good but doesn't get to the key visual aspect (silly/cute/adorable cats). Wikipedia offers ...
CommunityBot
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Meaning of the phrase 'under the cut'?
I came across this paragraph on Goodreads:
For this roundup, we focused on fiction titles where books play a major role in the plot. From there, we surfaced the most popular titles with at least ...
CommunityBot
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What single word encompasses all of a person's social media & Internet presence?
I'm looking for a single word that describes the Internet & Social media presence of a single entity. Their digital footprint, as it were.
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Source and popularity of the recent slang word "cuck"
Recently, I started noticing the word cuck appearing in internet discussions as a pejorative. I first encountered the word after a news media discussion on the term cuckservative last year, which was ...
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Term for Internet or Texting Acronyms, e.g. LOL, IMHO, M8
What are the acronym, internet words like lol, brb, imho, etc., called? Is there such a term beyond acronym? I was wanting to tell someone that someone else was not familiar with the meme/internet ...
CommunityBot
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Where does the expression “spill the tea” come from? [closed]
According to Wiktionary, spill the tea (idiomatic, informal) means:
To disclose information, especially of a sensitive nature.
Apparently, the expression appears to be a recent one.
2012, Demetria ...
CommunityBot
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Timeline of semantic change of the term "social justice warrior" (SJW)
We have a question about the origin of "SJW". I'm interested in how its usage has changed over time. As a rough outline:
It seems to have started out as a nonce-term of praise.
Then, it took on a ...
CommunityBot
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How are dashes used when referring to the work of someone? [closed]
Example: [Artist] - [Song]
Is that little line supposed to be a hyphen, non-breaking hyphen, figure-/en-/em-dash, horizontal bar, minus sign or double oblique hyphen? Are there supposed to be spaces ...
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What is the shorter way of saying - "I am sharing my understanding, in a hope to get corrected"? [closed]
I am looking for a concise way of saying or writing, "I am sharing my understanding about blah, in a hope to get corrected". The phrase "IMHO" expresses part of the idea, but does not necessarily ...
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Possible ways to pronounce an IPv6 address
When reading out IPv4 addresses, people typically say something like, "ten dot one dot seven" etc. This is pretty easy since "dot" is one syllable. How can IPv6 addresses be pronounced? Saying "colon" ...
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Correct spelling and/or hyphenation for electronic commerce
What is the correct spelling and/or hyphenation for the abbreviation of electronic commerce?
I have seen the following variations.
eCommerce
E-Commerce
ECommerce
E-commerce
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Is it “on Facebook“ or “in Facebook“?
For preposition of places, should Facebook, an Internet space, be used as in or on? E.g.
Find us in Facebook.
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