Thursday, May 31, 2007

word of the day @ Merriam-Webster

wetware • \WET-wair\ • noun
: the human brain or a human being considered especially with respect to human logical and computational capabilities

Example Sentence:
With the right wetware at the helm, the company should be able to turn a sizeable profit.

Did you know?
When the computer terms "software" and "hardware" sprang to life in the mid-20th century, a surge of visions and inventions using the new technology immediately followed . . . along with a revival of the combining form "ware." An early coinage was "wetware," which began circuiting techie circles in the 1970s as a name for the software installed by Mother Nature (a.k.a. the brain). Other "ware" names for people and their noggins have made a blip in our language -- for example, "meatware" and "liveware" -- but none have become firmly established in the general lexicon like "wetware."
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Hey! I never heard this before... been around 'puters for 20 freakin years... I should really pay more attention.

2 comments:

Carolyn said...

my wetware is in twaining. rip van winkle ain't got nothin' on my wetware as far as appreciating an 'awakening' in the last 6 months

Biddie said...

I started in computers back in 1968 - that's close to 40 years now and I sure never heard that term before ...
never heard of meatware or liveware either. But then I never had a job with any of the "fringe" programmers!
My jobs were always in the establishment's arena so I probably missed a lot along these lines!

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