"That's a great deal to make one word mean," Alice said in a thoughtful tone. "When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

Thursday, 15 January 2009

De-lurk

I meant to blog this some time ago.

In the olden days – i.e. when I was young and Adam was a lad – if you were caught lurking you were standing in someone’s flowerbed hoping to catch a sight of your favourite Eve or chatting to your friends in the doorway of the local shop and generally getting in everyone’s way.

In modern parlance it is to visit someone’s blog on a regular basis without leaving a comment – so that they do now know who you are or that you have visited.

I discovered this because one of the Archduchess’s New Year resolutions was to de-lurk. In my naivety I thought perhaps this meant to stop visiting people’s sites and blogs so much. However, as she explained “Lurking is the habit of reading a blog without commenting or revealing one's presence. Logically, de-lurking is the act of becoming an active reader on a blog.”

So if there are any lurkers out there, please feel welcome to de-lurk as comments are always welcome.
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4 comments:

  1. The Archduchess15 January 2009 at 01:45

    Hello there! Putting today's term into practice, here I am!

    I quite enjoy looking around your (many!) blogs, especially this one. I love that "aha!" moment when I figure out the meaning of a word I'd wondered about for years. And I love knowing what a word means just by knowing a similar word in a different language. Etymology is fascinating!

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  2. Don15 January 2009 at 02:37

    Good ramble. It is always so nice to get comments. They are like fuel to the writer's fire. Sometimes I feel bad for a post that has no comments. I want to assure the writer that what they wrote was worthwhile. I think, "Poor post... no one has given you a comment? Ahhhhh..." But that's just me.

    (Hmmm... does this comment negate my other comment about my sanity?)

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  3. Scriptor Senex15 January 2009 at 11:24

    Hello Archduchess, Knowing more than one language is of great benefit when you do crosswords - as I do - the roots of so many English words can be found in the Latin or French. If I knew some German like you it would give me virtually all I needed.

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  4. Bryony17 January 2009 at 14:31

    I have recently resolved (although not for New Year as such) to do just this! Thanks for giving it a name.

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