Hey, mouse potato.
Don’t forget to google the new big box in town. But skip the empty suit from the slurbs and hang with the technopreneur.
If you need a translation, grab the soon-to-be-released 2006 edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary for a definition of these and about 100 other new words that this year have been added to its pages.
A sampler of some new business-related words:
agritourism: (noun) the practice of touring agricultural areas to see farms and often to participate in farm activities.
big box: (noun) of, relating to, or being a large chain store having a boxlike structure.
biodiesel: (noun) a fuel that is similar to diesel fuel and is derived usually from vegetable sources (as soybean oil).
empty suit: (noun) an ineffectual executive.
endcap: (noun) a display of products placed at the end of an aisle in a store.
google: (verb) to use the Google search engine to obtain information about something on the World Wide Web.
mouse potato: (noun) a person who spends a great deal of time using a computer.
phishing: (noun/verb) a scam by which an e-mail user is duped into revealing personal or confidential information that the scammer can use illicitly.
ringtone: (noun) the sound made by a cellphone to signal an incoming call.
slurb: (noun) a suburb of wearisomely uniform and usually poorly constructed houses.
spyware: (noun) software that is installed in a computer without the user’s knowledge and transmits information about the user’s computer activities over the Internet.
supersize: (verb) to increase considerably the size, amount or extent of.
technopreneur: (noun) an entrepreneur whose business involves high technology.
text messaging: (noun/verb) the sending of short text messages electronically, especially from one cellphone to another.