Do you ever find yourself speaking out loud when you thought you were just in your head?… Your inner monologue comes sneaking out and people look at you like you’re speaking a different language.
“I wish I could command+z this morning. My CPU is full and I need to reboot.”
What on earth does that mean??
For us techies, we really are speaking a different language. We are speaking techie-slang.
So, you might just find these re-defined tech terms helpful when trying to understand your Techie friend. Or if you are the techie behind the computer, you might have a little laugh because you know that the conversation above it totally you.
11 Tech-Speak terms
1. Post it – to upload content online. Can be short for “go ahead, put it up online”. In daily life a techie that is active on social media will say “post it” several times in a day to confirm uploading a photo, or comment. One may be surprised how often they catch themselves saying this phrase.
2. Delete – forget it or never mind; or it can mean undue. In current urban language one may say “rewind” but this can be replaced with “delete” in our ever-changing tech obsessed world.
3. Snag-it – to grab something on the computer or online, so that you could use it in your own way. It is also known as a screen grab tool.
4. Link that – usually used to hyperlink to direct a link to another website; but for the techie, he/she may find themselves using it as “make the connection” or “connect the two” to understand the bridge between the concepts of things. In use: while speaking to another.
5. Brain dump – to transfer everything from your mind onto a website or online post to later be fixed and polished up. Non-techies may also use this phrase as well.
6. Google it – this is used just as much as “post-it” on the daily for anyone, not just the techie. “Google-it” is now synonymous with what used to be “look it up in the dictionary”. Sorry Mariam Webster, Google may have just put you out of business.
7. CPU – also known in the offline world as one’s brain. Techie examples of use are, “My CPU is full” or “My CPU is slow today”, which means that they are tired, maybe overworked, and they have reached their brain capacity.
8. Unplug – to disconnect from something. Here the techie or non-techie may use it figuratively in a way to say they need to get offline and take a break from their work on the computer. “I need to unplug”.
9. Command + Z – is a shortcut command on the keyboard but the techie will say it in a discussion when wanting to undue what they just said or did. Similar to Delete.
10. 404 – a page that cannot be found but a techie uses for something they cannot find (off-line).
11. 2.0 – “[fill in the blank] 2.0” means an updated and improved version of what is filled in the blank. It can refer to a non-tech related thing that is becoming tech-infused. Example of the latter: “Fashion 2.0” is fashion and Tech subject matter on Business of Fashion’s website.
If you find yourself using these terms like we do, let us know. And comment below if we left off a term you find yourself using that needs to be added to the list!