Word of the Week
by Kerry Maxwell, author of Brave New Words, with recordings by speechinaction
The verb bogotify originates
in computer programming. A computer program that has been changed so
many times that it has become completely disorganised, and is
therefore useless, has become bogotified. There's an everyday
analogy with a nut and bolt: if you tighten a nut too hard, you'll
strip the threads on the bolt, so the bolt has become bogotified and
is no longer usable.
Background
The root of the verb
derives from the adjective bogus, used in computing
terminology to mean ‘useless or non-functional’, e.g. a
bogus program, or ‘incorrect’, e.g. That
algorithm is bogus. It can also mean
‘unbelievable’, e.g. … you claim to have
solved the halting problem for Turing machines? That’s totally
bogus! Bogosity is a noun derivative, meaning
‘the degree to which something is bogus’.
These senses of bogus originated at Princeton University in
the United States in the late sixties, spreading throughout the
computing community, and coming into general use in both America and
Britain by the mid-eighties. British prescriptivists have continued
to reject these newer senses, and many British English dictionaries
still largely focus on the ‘counterfeit’ or ‘not genuine’
meaning of bogus, as in a bogus
insurance claim or a bogus £5
note. In fact, this sense of bogus also
originated in the US. It was first used in the eighteenth century,
when it was associated with a machine for making counterfeit money.
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This article was first published on 24th February 2003.
Subject archive: language - verbs, technology - computing