First Uber, then
Jaunt, two of my favorite words, now gone forever. Or at least as
long as I live.
It used to be that I
could show some multilingual sophistication by creating Germanic
compound words, using Uber, such as uberdog, uberschmuck, and uberswine, just to name three. But now with Uber, the taxi service
which is worth billions because it is able to find a way to employ
the masses of unemployed that the US has created with globalization
and with failing to provide any alternative for them, Uber is forever
associated, in this country at least, with that quasi-taxi scam.
In other words, a
favorite word has been stolen from me, and I dont like it.
Another such word is
Jaunt. You may not be aware that “jaunt” a rather rare but
normal part of the English language also has a secret meaning and a
secret history. One of the most important early science fiction
novels is/was The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester in which teleportation is
called “jaunting”, or “to jaunt”. Now it will probably lose
that meaning because everyone will assume you mean the new, very well
financed, VR game company.
You want to steal a
word from me, fine. Love you too.
An early use of the concept of synesthesia
The Stars My Destination on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_My_DestinationThe Stars My Destination on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/The-Stars-Destination-Alfred-Bester/dp/1876963468
