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Joined: Jun 2002
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When I saw a title of the article in "Scotland on sunday"
"Love or hate Holywood journalists, our real-life hacks are putting their lives on the line"
I though that the article is about
2. One who uses programming skills to gain illegal access to a computer network or file.
(The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000).
to my surprise the article talks about portrayal of journalists in movies and ends in
...spare a thought for hundreds of hacks now "embedded" amongst our armed forces for real .
but why journalists are called hacks? have you ever seen them named like this?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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"hack" is a very old word. Reporters and low grade writers were called hacks before there were any computers. I can remember when the earliest computer people called themselves "hackers" as a bit of false modesty, and a clever solution to a problem in machine language was called a hack, long before any bastards started writing malicious code.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In some circles, the term "cracker" is prefered for those who maliciously attempt to take over others' machines.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
I use hack more generally to mean any kind of amateur attempt to solve a problem, especially when the solution is awkward.
The pie crust is a bit of a hack job, I had to repair a big hole with a spare piece of pastry.
(I've never made a pie in my life, so the above sentence is quite plausible.)
Most examples I can think of seem to use "a bit of" before "hack" and sometimes "job" after it.
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2002
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but why journalists are called hacksMaybe, because they hack away at our patience at times, vika.  I have always associatd this term with the print media, although, certainly, a lot of the news channel reporters seem more deserving of this epithet. It is probably related to hackneyed. A journalist who is prone to repetitive bursts of insipid writing, would probably qualify a hack.
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
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Hackneyed . . . any relation to the hackney (horse drawn)cab, I wonder? I don't know if you can use the word in the present tense any other way.
Or could hack journalism be related to hacking away at something in a rough,unskilled way.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Not to cloud things up, here's the 'quick definitions' list from Onelook:
"Quick definitions (Hack)
noun: a saddle horse used for transportation rather than sport etc.
noun: a horse kept for hire
noun: an old or over-worked horse
noun: one who works hard at boring tasks
noun: a mediocre and disdained writer
noun: a car driven by a person whose job is to take passengers where they want to go in exchange for money
noun: a politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends
verb: informal: be able to manage or manage successfully (Example: "I can't hack it anymore")
verb: fix a computer program piecemeal until it works (Example: "I'm not very good at hacking but I'll give it my best")
verb: cough spasmodically (Example: "The patient with emphysema is hacking all day")
verb: kick on the shins; in rugby
verb: kick on the arms; in basketball
verb: cut away
verb: significantly cut up a manuscript
verb: cut with a tool"
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Wow, I never realized there were that many def.'s of the word hack! Thanks, WW. I couldn't help wondering whether they all came from the same root. The only etymology I found in AHD is: Middle English hakken, from Old English -haccian. , so possibly it covers all of them. I was a little disappointed; I was expecting something more like what I found when I looked up the adjacent word hackamore: ETYMOLOGY: Alteration of Spanish jáquima, halter, from Old Spanish xaquima, from Arabic akma, bit of a bridle, from akama, to bridle. Hey--do you-all reckon the Arabs used akama when a person bridled?
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