Grokking the new lexicon

The first English dictionary didn’t include the word “dictionary.” Published in 1604, its author, Robert Cawdrey, called it A Table Alphabeticall. 

As the name suggests, Cawdrey’s table of words was alphabetized — a practice not yet ubiquitous in reference books, such that Cawdrey had to explain how to use it: “If the word, which thou art desirous to finde, begin with (a) then looke in the beginning of this Table, but if with (v) looke towards the end.”

It was pretty basic. The table included only 2,543 words, often defined with single-word synonyms.

The second English dictionary, An English Expositor, had roughly double the number of words and slightly fuller definitions.

Published in 1616, its author warned there were many more words to come. A dictionary maker’s “labor would know no end,” John Bullokar wrote, “since our English tongue daily changes it.”

A century later, Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language was more comprehensive. It included 43,000 words, with definitions that moved beyond simple synonyms and into the realm of literary flair.

Some were witty: 

Others caustic:

Incredibly, Johnson wrote the entire dictionary himself — in just eight years. 

By the 20th century, the volume of words that an English speaker might want to know had expanded so dramatically that a comprehensive account of them could only be crowdsourced. The first full Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1928, included definitions for over 400,000 words, compiled with the help of thousands of volunteers who sent in quotation slips with suggested words and example usages.

It took 70 years to complete. The first volume — just A to B — was published in 1888. 

By the time it reached M in 1908, the world had changed so much, some of the entries would have been unrecognizable to the original contributors.

Dictionaries have been playing catch-up ever since.

In the 1970s, the “Jargon File” (later the Hacker’s Dictionary) was the first attempt to document language moving at internet speed. Started by scientists at Stanford and MIT, it was a living record of the terms used within the world’s first computer labs. These hacker-wordsmiths were the Samuel Johnsons of Silicon Valley, documenting a culture that traditional dictionaries were too slow to catch:

Today, the Hacker’s Dictionary is nearly as anachronistic as A Table Alphabeticall. Most modern tech slang moves too fast for even a crowdsourced file to keep up with. 

This sometimes makes it feel as if we’re drifting toward Humpty Dumpty: people choosing just what their words mean, and the meanings changing by the hour. 

So in the spirit of putting things back together again, here are at least a few of the new terms everyone who cares about language needs to grok.

(Not alphabeticall.)

Copypasta (n.): A block of text that is copied and pasted repeatedly across the internet. Intended as irony, but generally unrecognizable to anyone outside a tiny niche of terminally online people. 

Soyface (n.): The wide-mouthed facial expression used in social media thumbnails to signal exaggerated excitement or shock. Usage: “Never click on a soyface video.”

Szn (n.): Short for “season,” used to denote a period of time dominated by a trend or fad. Usage: “It’s always ‘crime szn’ in crypto.”

Exit liquidity (n.): Behind-the-curve investors who create profits for insiders looking to sell an asset just before it crashes.

Based (adj.): Originally slang for being authentically yourself without caring what others think. Now it just means “I agree.”

Centicorn (n.): A rare breed of startup valued at over $100 billion — in usage because “unicorns” ($1 billion startups) are so common now.

PvP (n.): Player-vs-player, from gaming. A zero-sum dogfight where you only win if someone else loses (memecoins, for example).

PvE (n.): Player-vs-environment. A positive-sum activity where everyone can win (equities, for example).

Mid-curve (adj.): The intellectual trap of being in the middle of the bell curve — lacking the pure instinct of the simple-minded and the profound clarity of the true genius.

Mid-curve (v.): Dismissing a simple, winning idea because you’ve convinced yourself it’s too basic.

FUD (n.): Acronym for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. It describes a strategy of spreading vague, negative misinformation to tank the price of an asset or the reputation of a project. Also usable as a verb: “Stop FUDDing.” (No relation to Elmer.)

Coded (adj.): A shorthand reply on X to signal you’re in the know on some niche topic. Example usage: “zcash-coded.” 

Larp (v.): Short for Live Action Role Playing. Used to call someone out for pretending to be something they aren’t. Usage: “In this newsletter, I often larp as an economist.”

Nerdsniped (v.): To be drawn into an industry because its complexity hijacks your brain and forces you to drop everything else to solve it. Usage: “The people that used to be nerdsniped by crypto are now being nerdsniped by AI.”

S-tier (adj.): The gold standard of quality, originated in the Japanese grading system where S stands for shū (exemplary).

God-tier (adj.): The rank reserved for things so perfect they transcend the S-tier.

Cryptid (n.): Someone with S-tier skills who avoids the limelight, has no LinkedIn, and only appears in obscure Discord servers or GitHub commits to solve a “God-tier” problem before vanishing again. The Bigfoots of tech.

Dogfooding (v.): A company using its own product in-house to find bugs and prove it actually works before asking customers to pay for it.

Shove (v.): From poker, the act of going all-in.

Flintstoning (v.): Like Fred Flintstone’s car, a product that looks automated but is actually being powered by humans behind the scenes.

Cope bag (n.): A small position in an asset you don’t fully believe in, purely to prevent the soul-crushing regret of watching it moon without you.

Xeet (n./v.): A post or posting on X.

Maxxing (v.): Pushing a behavior to its absolute extreme to gain a competitive edge, full signalling value, or a feeling of belonging. Originally from RPG gaming (where you “min-max” stats). Common usage: looksmaxxing.

Boomer (n.): Previously an age cohort, now a state of mind characterized by resistance to new technology or staying up late. Common usage: “OK, boomer.”

Alpha (n.): In traditional finance, the degree to which you outperform an index. In crypto, any information that’s not widely available on X.

Token (n.): Previously a unit of value on a blockchain; now a unit of computation in a large-language model.

Submit your favorite neologisms for the next edition here: [email protected].

— Byron Gilliam

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