Monday 31 December 2007

On 'word of - ' what?

A flurry of activity on an earlier post, anticipating the International Year of Languages, which starts at midnight tonight, has presented me with a linguistic conundrum. With reference to Wikipedia and Facebook (et al) spreading news about something, I wanted to say that this kind of 'word of mouth' can be very effective - but that phrase seems inappropriate for an e-medium. We need a new locution. 'Word of eye' doesn't feel quite right. I rather like 'word of click'. Anybody got a better idea?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gossip.

DC said...

Yeah, but that covers all the mediums - speech, writing, electronic - and I feel the need for something that relates to e-activity in particular. egossip?

Anonymous said...

Word of hand.

DC said...

Nice one!

Anonymous said...

Word of light

or

Word of screen

Anonymous said...

Word of technology.
Word of internet.

DC said...

I rather like 'word of screen', I must say. Preserves a nice analogy with the mouth.

Anonymous said...

Word of keys?

Will said...

'Word of I'- the following might appear a little cryptic.
'I'- for 'Internet', of course...
We have 'word of mouth'...
and now we can have 'word of I', you know, it has a mental association to the word 'eye'. So, you see (if physically able to do so), you 'see' the text with your eyes, as you 'speak' with your mouth.
'Word of I'..emphasises the INTERNET ('I' for 'Internet', and 'I' having an association with the eyes- you see the text!!! Will.

DC said...

That's two votes for I(nternet). Hmmm...

Unknown said...

"Word of electron."

Anonymous said...

Word of mouse.

Anonymous said...

I vote "word of mouse" - except that it seems less permenant than others suggested, and more of a witty wordplay.

Anonymous said...

Luciano Floridi has a column in The Philosopher's Magazine called "Word of Mouse."