Roots
New words on the block
Deepti

One New Year resolution easy to keep is the promise to remain updated on the latest words. Today, some help arrives in the shape of the words given below. Some of these words are already doing the rounds while some wait for their cue, patiently in the wings.

Forget Wi-Fi, WiMax is here. Wi-Fi stands for ‘wireless fidelity’ and is used as a LAN or Local Area Network working over short distances. WiMax stands for Worldwide Interoperatibility for Microwave Access. It can give internet coverage to whole cities at high speeds, two features that Wi-Fi lacks. Incidentally, Pakistan has the largest fully functioning WiMax network in the world.

The global financial meltdown seems to be at a distance from India, but since one cannot predict futures, it is a good idea to be prepared for a word like ‘funt’. Already in place in the UK, this word was coined by Richard Rubin who went on to create a website that doles out advice to those who are in debt but are unable to get help or, in other words are ‘funts’. Funt comes from the longer word ‘Financially UNTouchable’. It looks as if it will stay on as the latest label for someone who cannot get any credit in a credit-run world due to a very poor credit rating.

In spite of the academic howls of protest, Wikipedia, the online collaborative encyclopedia is here to stay. This encyclopedia is based on wiki technology that creates a website that can be edited by anyone, on which reading and editing are linked processes and which, as a result does not need constant topping up. The word ‘wiki’ comes from the Hawaiian phrase ‘wiki wiki’ or, ‘very quick’. This ‘very quick’ technology called ‘wiki’ has created the ‘webcom’, an offshoot of the ‘sitcom’. The sitcom or ‘situational comedy’ had generated the ‘romcom’ and the ‘zomromcom’, the former employing romance and the latter employing zombies. Now, the webcom has arrived, a daily interactive sitcom that uses content scripted by viewers. This content may be uploaded through the wiki, email or the mobile phone.