The Term -- Interweb

[MissMelsWell]

Ok, so over the last two years or so, I've noticed the increasing use of the word "Interweb" or "Interwebs" ... does anyone know why people use this term? Wasn't Internet or "The Web" enough? Am I missing something? I've worked in the internet sector for 22 years as a web developer, UX engineer, site producer, writer, editor and IT network engineer. I'd never heard this term until the last 24 months or so.

I've heard my daughter use this term, I've seen people here use it a lot. Did this grow out of some stupid 4Chan thing? I'm trying to figure out what the origins are for a word that seems to mean the same thing as "the web" or "internet" ... of course the "internet" is far more than the world wide web, and encompasses many more protocols than just http... but wasn't "web" suitable for http alone?

I don't get it. What did I miss?

[Stonecoldvampzy]

A mixture of both slang terms: The Interweb and the recent pluralization of the word Internet (Said by Bush during the 2004 debates).

The Interwebs is identical in meaning to the other terms.

"It got it from teh Interwebs"

So I'm guessing we are not hip anymore, since I needed to google this to

Urbandictionary

edit: inserted the link.

Edited November 13, 2011 by StonecoldVampzy

[Fluffybunny]

It was used a couple of times by people who didn't know what they were talking about, and the term just kind of stuck. It is right up there with Ted Stevens and his discussion of the internet as "a series of tubes"...

[MissMelsWell]

Ok! Now I know it's a term I'll never use, and when editing other people's work, I'll always edit it out.

Good lord, I try to keep up with these things, including the capitalization and parts of speech of these words. I kept seeing interweb and thought, where the hell did that come from? What does it mean? And am I suppose to capitalize that? LOL.

I thought it had to have had stupid origins. I guess I was right.

I did look it up at one point, and did see the Urban Dictionary entry for it, but I'm never sure what in the Urban dictionary is a joke, and what's accurate. Yeeesh. LOL.

[archernyc]

I have a friend that uses this term and since she is very smart and up to the minute with trends and such, I felt like a fool asking her to explain the difference. Glad I'm not the only one that needed clarification.

[Feenix Fire]

I use the word sometimes. I didn't know about Bush using it. Just thought it was cute.

[MissMelsWell]

A mixture of both slang terms: The Interweb and the recent pluralization of the word Internet (Said by Bush during the 2004 debates).

The Interwebs is identical in meaning to the other terms.

"It got it from teh Interwebs"

So I'm guessing we are not hip anymore, since I needed to google this to

Urbandictionary

edit: inserted the link.

Yeesh, if that's "hip" I don't think I want to be hip. LOL.

I always knew what the Internet was, lord knows I've been using it since before the invention of the first web browser. I was in the industry when the first Intranets were being developed and used in business, I was around when the concept of an extranet was pretty foreign.. now I hear this weird term "interwebs" and I got all kinds of confused. I was begining to wonder if I'd missed something lol.

Now I know it's a slang word made up by people who didn't know what they were talking about. Noted.

[coldethyl]

Yeesh, if that's "hip" I don't think I want to be hip. LOL.

I always knew what the Internet was, lord knows I've been using it since before the invention of the first web browser. I was in the industry when the first Intranets were being developed and used in business, I was around when the concept of an extranet was pretty foreign.. now I hear this weird term "interwebs" and I got all kinds of confused. I was begining to wonder if I'd missed something lol.

Now I know it's a slang word made up by people who didn't know what they were talking about. Noted.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I use Urban Dictionary all the time.

What kills me is when I'm at work talking to someone who is barely 20 and I say, "I used to run Bulletin Boards on a 286." And they say, "What's a Bulletin Board?" and I want to shrivel up and die. They have no idea what it means to upload/download packets of mail. LOL

[MissMelsWell]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I use Urban Dictionary all the time.

What kills me is when I'm at work talking to someone who is barely 20 and I say, "I used to run Bulletin Boards on a 286." And they say, "What's a Bulletin Board?" and I want to shrivel up and die. They have no idea what it means to upload/download packets of mail. LOL

I ran a BBS on a 286. LOL. FIDOnet baby! It was called Neverland BBS, back in the late 80s/early 90s, Art Bell used to call it once in a while and mention it on-air once in a while too. It was a pretty busy little BBS. The friend I ran it with loved anything weird, he used to like to post all kinds of Freedom of Information stuff on it. LOL.

You could talk to my daughter... she knows what a BBS is LOL, I even was teaching her how to write modem init strings when she was like 6. hahaha She's 24 now. She STILL plays MUDS as far as I know. She's an uber dork. haha. She works for NCSoft/ArenaNET now ... kid was a gamer then, and is a gamer now. I doubt she'll ever go into the boring business apps her mother (me) supports... Mortgage and Loan Origination software! Lucky little girl she is!! LOL.

Oh ya, we ran a copy of Leisure Suit Larry too on our BBS... always popular with the creepy crowd. LOL.

Edited November 23, 2011 by MissMelsWell

[somelier]

It's a Malapropism.

[Space Commander Travis]

it's an amusing conflation of the words "internet" and "Web" used by the kind of people who, I believe, like to refer to themselves as "dweebs", to show the world how clever they are.