“Ask”

People often get frustrated with people in the computer world, because we have so much slang/jargon. (Some argue that every profession has a lot of slang and/or jargon, but it seems that the geeks and nerds tend to have more. Plus, let’s not forget the constant flow of TLAs, ETLAs, and EETLAs.)

Sometimes, even I get frustrated—it seems that people like inventing new terms just for the sake of inventing them. I would argue—with little to no empirical evidence—that it’s not the true nerds or geeks who are inventing jargon for the sake of inventing it; it’s the nerd/geek wannabes.

Well, I don’t know if it’s a global thing, or just at my particular client, but they’ve done it again: They have re-purposed the word ask and made it into a noun. Instead of saying “What did the business client ask for?” people will say “What was the original ask?” I thought it was just one particular person who was using this phrase, but then I heard someone else use it, and these two people don’t work together. So either it’s becoming common, or these two people share the same boss, or have some other common colleague, who uses the term.

Right now, to me, it seems silly. If it catches on, it’ll seem commonplace, in six months.