Techspeak

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Specialized vocabulary and phrasing that people working in computing and engineering use among themselves
2. The technical jargon of computing and other high-tech fields, often hard for outsiders to follow
3. Dense, insider terminology associated with the technology industry and its experts

Etymology: "Techspeak" is a blend of "tech" and "-speak," the suffix borrowed from "Newspeak," the artificial language in George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four." Orwell's coinage gave English a productive pattern: attach "-speak" to a field or group to name the jargon its members use, and the result is usually a little mocking. The clipped "tech" is itself a shortening of "technology" and "technical," so the word bundles a shortened root with a suffix that carries a built-in sense of insider talk. "Techspeak" therefore names the specialized vocabulary of computing, engineering and the technology industry, the terms that sound opaque to outsiders. Because the pattern is so flexible, the suffix has generated many similar coinages, and "techspeak" stands among them as a compact label for the jargon itself rather than for any particular technology.

Synonyms: jargon, argot, lingo, technobabble

Antonyms: plain English