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#44844 10/17/01 02:23 AM
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The current issue of "Brill's Content", Fall 2001, which is also the last issue , contains an article about the "dot com bust" and the responsibity the media must take for hyperventilating metaphorically about the "New Economy" and "the Goldrush" in cyperspace. The writer describes the "dot com era" as a "blovian vision". Bet you never heard of the word "blovian"! Bet you think it means "inflated" or "overblown" (just like I did). You won't find "blovian" in an ordinary dictionary, but its use in describing the "dot com era" is very apt. Can anyone guess what it means?


#44845 10/17/01 10:36 AM
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You won't find "blovian" in an ordinary dictionary, but its use in describing the "dot com era" is very apt.

Don't you think it is a bit early to write off the dot.com era in this way? I'll agree that the verbiage engendered by its promoters reached a high figure on the Beaufort scale, and current events have shown that it was, at that time, worthy of little more than a zephyr. However, the dot.com era is still with us, and shows no sign of going away. It seems probable that the wind will rise again, and, one might say, that the period of blovianism will "blow over"!


#44846 10/17/01 02:41 PM
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However, the dot.com era is still with us, and shows no sign of going away. It seems probable that the wind will rise again, and, one might say, that the period of blovianism will "blow over"!

Agree with you, Rhubarb, that if "blovian" had anything to do with "blowing", it would "blow over". The author has come up with a description which is far less intuitive and far more clever than that. I think you will enjoy the wit if not the wisdom. P.S. Can we agree that the "dot com era" is more "air" than "era" ... ubiquitous, invisible, protean, oft-times tempestuous, infrequently gentle and never still. And, yes, "blovian" too, in the same sense that all life forms are "blovian" (except those which are extinct).


#44847 10/17/01 03:20 PM
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Umm, Merriam-Webster?

Warning: Spoiler

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=bloviate

OK, so they don't list blovian per se.


#44848 10/17/01 03:31 PM
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here is the complete* list of google-hits:
Blovian brericauda (scientific name of the short-tailed shrew)
Blovian Rainbow (some sort of chile pepper)
Blovian Blue and Golds (macaws)
Francine Blovian (gossip columnist! :)

the only common thread I can see is shrewish <eg>

*omitting similar results


#44849 10/17/01 04:03 PM
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Sio how would this sentence be interpreted?

"Lip-less Wonder Will occasionally secretes the fluids of his blovia
sac upon the corpus of American letters and arts, and for this, he remains ...


#44850 10/17/01 05:13 PM
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bloviate means to talk long and windily about something, with an undercurrent meaning of doing so without having the slightest idea of what one is talking about. I suspect blovian is a backformation and refers to the fact that the dot com vision was based on a lot of hot air and little if any substance.



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#44851 10/17/01 07:57 PM
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Nope, TEd, but excellent try. Someone on this thread is closer than they know but I won't let the "blovian" out of the bag, yet.


#44852 10/17/01 08:14 PM
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Aktshully, the dot-com era isn't over. There's been a major shakeout, sure, and the returns probably weren't as dramatic as predicted, but the dot-coms - the serious ones - are still out there and doing very, very nicely, thank you.

I always thought blovian meant talking at length without saying anything of substance. I saw it used to describe MPs' speeches and rather liked it for that reason, plus the fact that it runs trippingly off the tongue. I therefore await my imminent correction with bated breath. Well, we've just had a dinner high in garlic content so I guess it should be "baited" breath. Or halitosis.



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#44853 10/17/01 08:19 PM
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Hmmm, i'd've been inclined to interpret blovian in this case just as everyone else has; overstated/much-ado-about-nothingness.

My second guess would be that it means something along the order of 'flash in the pan', capitalizing on the metaphorical aspects of the "wind" component in 'bloviate' et al; ie carried on by the wind and thus transitory.

Now, plut, are you going to at least do a warmer-colder-warmer-warmer-WARMER-REDHOT game with us, or will you simply allow us to f[l]ounder along for a few days?

EDIT it wasn't until i reread this thread that i realized that Rhuby already proffered this "blowing over" theory, and stated it more clearly. mea culpa.

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