There are words when mentioned; automatically you are able to identify the profession they relate to. Words such as Surgery, Operation and Anesthetics are associated with the medical profession. In the academia; words like Thesis, Convocation, and Matriculation are frequently used. Inflation, Budget Deficit are words that are associated with the economics field. We can go on and on, but the point is that, every true profession have lingua franca, better still jargon they use within but may have diverse relations or even unknown outside their society or profession. It shouldn’t be difficult to identify some basic jargon of your profession; I have identified the basic jargon that are associated with Computers and technology. Truth be told, personally, I may not have heard or used some of them if there were no computers (PDAs, keyboards, other electronic gadgets) in use today in our homes and work places.
1. ICONS
The icon is one word that used to be sacred among English words. It has been seldom used in our daily interactions to represent something or somebody before it was brought to the front by technology. The icon is a miniature image representing a program, a click on the icon launches a desired application to the desktop.
2. CLICK
The word click ironically is not the action of pressing the button of the mouse, rather the sound that it produced after that gentle press of the button. It would have suited the purpose if we say ‘press’ the button or ‘right-press’ the button. After all, a click sound however will occur. But the ‘press’ has been rather been nicknamed after the sound. I wouldn’t have used the word click anywhere because I don’t remember the last time I heard a click of something apart from the computer mouse.
3. BROWSE /BROWSER
This word sounds so sweet, a word for the elite, the selected few. Although browse has been gazetted as a dictionary word, was superfluous in spoken expression until the days of the Internet. The noun browser only had its relation to internet program. Although browse can be used as flipping through the pages of a newspaper, the noun browser cannot be referred to the person flipping the pages. It has only been used for the internet application in relations to the computer
4. FORMAT
The use of format appears in both hardware and software tasks but practically with one underlining definition. Whichever way formatting is used, it’s used to express configuration. When a flash disk is to be used for the first time, it needs to be configured for use. The same principle applies to text documents or images, either imported or inserted to a clipboard. It needs to be configured to suite the desired use with some available formatting tools. By this explanation, it is clear that format replaces widely used words such as prepare, configure or set.
5. DELETE
It appears the meaning of the word delete is unanimous to removing something from the computer, according to the dictionary. Although words like remove, cancel, purge and erase could have served the purpose, Delete was identified as the best option reserved for the computer lingua franca.
6. PASSWORD
Let me see by hand all those who would have had a password without the computer? Certainly, no one would have had a password for his door-lock or wooden cabinet without an electronic device. Password is the electronic adaptation of a physical key or code. Now the average computer user has a minimum of 3 passwords with different accompanying user-names operating from various electronic devices for various accounts.
7. OPERATING SYSTEM
Whenever you hear anything operating systems, you know it’s electronics. You think about technology and computer
8. DATABASE
A digital store of related information in reference to computers, but now a highly used word in reference to digital storage
9. INSTALLATION
Installation is now a key word amongst the IT fraternity. It has almost replaced words such as Induction and initiation. Every operating system uses installation for the procedure involving the fixing a program onto a pc.
10. PLUG AND PLAY
From the Microsoft team, Plug and Play (PnP) featured for the first time in Windows 95 and has come to stay in later operating systems. PnP doesn’t allow the user to prompt the computer to open a device plugged into the system unit. As the name goes, when you plug-in a device, the systems recognizes it and plays it automatically without user intervention. It has come to replace earlier systems where users have to prompt and open devices when added to the computer.
11. E-MAIL
A futurist once predicted that before man gets to the moon, letters would have taken seconds to travel from New York to China. Now, not only is it a reality now, the e-mail is the most popular and convenient means of sending letters and corresponds worldwide.
12. COMPUTER
Now, Computer is synonymous to technology, because it is by far the greatest invention resulting from technological advancement. The word computer never existed before technological dominion; it is a product of technology.
13. FAQs
Although this vocabulary is mostly a preserver to computers and the Internet, it is gaining popularity in the prints as well in recent times. Frequently asked questions (FAQs) are self prepared questions and answers that are mostly anticipated from visitors or users of computers.
14. PERIPHERALS
This word I concede, was not introduced by the computer, but seldom used but now a popular vocabulary in English language as a result of computers.
15. INTERNET
Could I have left the Internet out, of course not! Technology coined this word and now a major word cutting across many languages.
16. DESKTOP
The top of the office desk, never used to be called desktop, but now the desktop is used to portray electronic files and folders on the computer’s home screen.
