Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Neep neep.

I got the term "neepery" from Neil Gaiman, who may have gotten it from Teresa Nielsen. A Google search shows that it's not as common as I thought. In fact, if you start using it now, you can be ahead of the curve. Neep now before it dies a horrible death on the USAToday front page or on the lips of David Letterman.

neep-neep: /neep neep/, n. [onomatopoeic, widely spread through SF fandom but reported to have originated at Caltech in the 1970s] One who is fascinated by computers. Less specific than hacker, as it need not imply more skill than is required to play games on a PC. The derived noun neeping applies specifically to the long conversations about computers that tend to develop in the corners at most SF-convention parties (the term neepery is also in wide use).
In a more general sense, it was also described to be the sound that SF fans make when talking about their geeky stuff. So I think it relates to nerdy, computery, science-fictiony esoteric jargony things. In fact, this post may be neepery. The OED has yet to weigh in regarding this complicated subject.

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