|
| Thread: Origins of the term "flaming" | |
|
Peacemaker
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Peacemaker = double entendre
|
posted December 11, 2003 09:34 PM |
|
|
Origins of the term
An associate of mine is a linguist. She has asked me about the use of the term "flaming" in internetspeak, and whether or not it bears any relationship to another use of the term "flaming," which in the U.S. is a somewhat pejorative (?) adjectival reference to an overtly homosexual man.
My response was that I did not believe it had any relationship to this other usage, but then there's a lot I don't know about internetspeak. Does any of you know anything about the origins of the term? I am interested in any thoughts, feelings or other feedback you all might have on this topic. I would also be interested in a discussion about the actual definition of the term as it is used in internetspeak.
____________
I have menopause and a handgun. Any questions?
|
|
MadTurkey
Tavern Dweller
|
|
posted December 11, 2003 10:30 PM |
|
|
From the Jargon Dictionary
( http://people.kldp.org/~eunjea/jargon/?idx=flame )
Quote:
The term may have been independently invented at several different places. It has been reported from MIT, Carleton College and RPI (among many other places) from as far back as 1969, and from the University of Virginia in the early 1960s.
It is possible that the hackish sense of ‘flame’ is much older than that. The poet Chaucer was also what passed for a wizard hacker in his time; he wrote a treatise on the astrolabe, the most advanced computing device of the day. In Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida, Cressida laments her inability to grasp the proof of a particular mathematical theorem; her uncle Pandarus then observes that it's called “the fleminge of wrecches.” This phrase seems to have been intended in context as “that which puts the wretches to flight” but was probably just as ambiguous in Middle English as “the flaming of wretches” would be today. One suspects that Chaucer would feel right at home on Usenet.
|
|
Peacemaker
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Peacemaker = double entendre
|
|
posted December 11, 2003 11:42 PM |
|
|
Wow! Great answer! Thanks MadTurkey for the very on-point research and sources. It appears that this use of "flaiming" might actually pre-date the other use (???)
(Any additional comments or feelings about this subject are also welcome.)
|
|
Delfontes
Known Hero
Sorcerer Extraordinaire
|
|
posted December 12, 2003 12:50 AM |
|
|
The Internet chat "flaming" has no connection whatsoever with the "flaming" homosexual reference.
The two are as different from eachother in meaning as they are to the literal, more dangerous, meaning.
|
|
Peacemaker
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Peacemaker = double entendre
|
|
posted December 12, 2003 05:06 PM |
|
|
This is what I suspected Delfontes. Thanks for verification.
I note that nearly 60 people have visited this thread. If any of you believes otherwise about the separate usage of these two terms we'd be interested in hearing from you as well. So far it appears fairly unanimous based on the absence of any contradictory posts out of all those visits.
|
|
|
|
