One reason why tech lingo catches on so fast is because of the viral qualities of the Net itself. New words and phrases get circulated via e-mail and the Web with the same level of contagiousness of a cold virus in a preschool. Merriam-Webster added those words to its lexicon in 1998. When the Oxford English Dictionary officially acknowledges such words, that means it's time for all you technophobes out there to get wired. This Internet thing is not just a fad.
Tech talk cuts across all races, ages and boundaries.
As geek speak makes its way into the mainstream in all its incarnations, it, like the English language itself, brings its own quirks and conundrums. Lederer, the San Diego author, has a lot of opinions on the word. He's the usage editor of the unabridged, third edition of The Random House Dictionary of the English Language. You can have one sheep or several sheep. But it's a different kind of animal elsewhere in the world.