Confused in black and white: a rant.

It's not easy making up new words.

The easiest way to do it is to put together a couple of old ones. This has the advantage that people will have a good chance of being able to guess the new word's meaning.

Cavepool, for instance. Or ovenproof. Or discoball.

You need to be careful, though.

Take this word. It's the name of a company.

Extremetech.

But what, you may ask (as I did) is a metech? And why would one want an extre one of them?

Extremetech's website makes it clear. There it's written:

EXTREMETECH.

And then it's as plain as black and...

...oh.

Sorry. Bad choice of phrase, there.

Word To Use Today: a word with tech in it, preferably one people will be able to understand. Tech comes from the Greek tekhnē, which means skill.