Category: Language

“CamelCase” is a term for a name created when capitalized compound words are run together. Web domains in particular have accelerated their usage (MySpace, CompuServe, EarthLink, etc.), and they have become quite the trend with marketers these days. Even large companies (FedEx, GlaxoSmithKline) are sneaking it into the public consciousness.

Incidentally, the rabbit hole through which I found this word started at Heath’s post about corporate subversion, which led me to a link to Ward Cunningham, which led to a link to the Portland Pattern Repository, which led to a link to CamelCase. God bless you, Wikipedia.

Why is it that we still have no word for strings of initials (HTML, NAACP, BFE, FCC) yet we have a term for the reversal of logical phrases? Ladies and gentleman of the jury, I present to you hysteron proteron, an overly lengthy phrase describing the inversion of a logical statement or clause. For example, saying “bred and born” instead of “born and bred.” This particular term was brought to my attention by my drummer and fellow language nerd, Steve Chapman.

Ah, but you say “acronym” is the term for things like AFL-CIO, DEA, and AARP, but it’s not. An acronym only qualifies as such if the initials create a word like “radar” (RAdio Detection And Ranging) or maybe even “SCSI” (pronounced “scuzzy”). Given that the Internet has created an unprecendented glut of what I like to call “initializations” (ASP, IIS, AOL), we really should get ourselves a word for this phenomenon. I vote for “initialization” if only because it has only slightly fewer[1] letters than “hysteron proteron.”

1.) Let it be known, mom, that I said “fewer” and not “less.”

A client pointed out recently that “Web site” is how the AP Style Manual dictates the proper terminology for what you’re viewing right now. Curiously capitalized, “Web site” is an unwieldy two-word phrase moving toward compound status in the much sleeker and more concise “website.” It just makes good sense. You wouldn’t capitalize “brochure” would you? So why capitalize “Web site”?

It is up to all of us to dictate usage. The AP Style Manual is not Usage God, it is merely Usage Archive, marking the boundaries and storing information for uniform reference. It is not flexible enough to keep pace with the rapidly changing world in which we live. If it were up to the AP Style Manual we’d all still be saying “To-day” and “To-morrow.” So get out there, kids, and make “website” your terminology of choice!

The Apostrophe Protection Society has a neat selection of photos showing improper apostrophe usage. If they really wanted to become huge, I’m sure they could align themselves with all the photobloggers and Flickr enthusiasts to start a truly massive archive but they’re content to stay small. They also take the time to school people on the dinstinction between “less” and “fewer” which my mother pointed out to me just the other day.

I just read this in one of my semi-spammy SitePro News emails:

“People who have certain remote spyware programs installed on their machines are literally sitting ducks.”

So people spontaneously transmogrify into waterfowl if they have remote spyware on their machines? The duck population will skyrocket. Seriously, people, we have to do something about the gross misuse of the word “literally.” It should only be used in a situation where it deactivates figurative language. You can only say “literally” if your statement is logically true. Saying that people are “literally sitting ducks” means that people are ducks. This idiocy must be stopped; it’s literally an epidemic.

Oh yeah, and the article was titled “The Ten Truth’s About Spyware.” Shoot me now.