Language Inspired By Technology

While technology is certainly one of my passions (a recent date I brought home took one look at the bank of monitors and wires running around just in my bedroom and exclaimed "this is obscene!"), another passion of mine is languages (also marked in my apartment by the random bits of phrases hung on the walls in languages such as Japanese, Arabic, Greek, and even Tengwar/Sindarin, written by my hand.)

Combining those two passions, Fan Jin over at Boing Boing Gadgets has made me a very happy man by tracing back some of the common phrases we use today to their tech origins:

"On the same wavelength"

Common definition: Thinking similarly, understanding each other (e.g. "My therapist really understands me. We're on the same wavelength. Oh, brother!")

Original definition: Literally, listening to a radio transmission on the same wavelength as someone else.

First use: The earliest use we could find was in a 1975 issue of The Economist: "Well, Mr. Ford's Administration and the Congress...which is all right so long as they are on the same wavelength."

Hop on over to Boing Boing Gadgets to read the rest!

9 Common Idioms That Come from Technology [Boing Boing Gadgets]