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Sunday 19 March 2017

Sunday Rest: meatspace. Word Not To Use Today

Ooh, I hate this word.

 I think I'd hate it even if meatspace was just somewhere for you to put your, yes, meat - but it's far, far worse than that.

Meatspace is a term used by those poor sad people who live as much as they possibly can in cyberspace*. For them, I'm afraid, meatspace means the real world.

I know that to use the words pathetic, purblind, and pedestrian in this context would be unkind.

But they're tempting.

Word Not To Use Today: meatspace. It's not clear who first came up with this word, but it's certainly been around since 1993 (it was used, jocularly, in the Austin Cyberspace Journal). It got into the Oxford English Dictionary in the year 2000.

*Why poor and sad? Because, basically, the universe (or God, if you wish) has been going for thirteen billion years (or about six thousand if you're going for the Biblical option) and the internet has been going for less than thirty and is all made up by humans.



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