#53964
01/26/2002 2:15 AM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
"I think we are slowly Enronizing the economy, Enronizing the budget."
– Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle
The verb, "Enron," has two definitions in contemporary usage: 1. to conceal or disguise financial and accounting facts; 2. to allow or cause retirement funds to be diminished, mishandled or swiped.This from: http://news1.iwon.com/article/id/325583|politics|01-25-2002::21:10|cbs.htmlI must say that I think the word actually sounds rather nice--it has a nice cadence--but just the thought of it . . .ugh.
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#53965
01/26/2002 3:39 AM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Seriously though Jazz, do you think this is a word that was in his vocabulary a week ago.
It looks like one of those words that become instant 'buzzwords' You start hearing them everwhere because it is fashionable and then it joins the list of words slotted for banishment because of its overuse.
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#53966
01/26/2002 4:34 AM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
Seriously though Jazz, do you think this is a word that was in his vocabulary a week ago
No, not at all, and hopefully it won't be a week from now.
I know we've harped on "-ize"ing quite a bit, but I don't know if any of you experience the annoyance of people thinking they're so incredibly creative in "making up" a word just by adding "ize" to somethine. I've assumed it's mainly just people my age naively imagining that they're making up creative words, but I'm not so sure.
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#53967
01/26/2002 4:43 AM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
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naively imagining that they're making up creative wordsUnfortunately, Jazzo, there is no one generation to hold a monopoly on bombast - and this pattern is anyway (according to the Blessed Faldage) just the ~izing on the linguistic cake 
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#53968
01/26/2002 11:12 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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there is no one generation to hold a monopoly on bombast - and this pattern is anyway (according to the Blessed Faldage) just the ~izing on the linguistic cake. Let's beatify him. Up. Anyway, is enroniz(s)ing the financial world the same as doroniz(s)ing the music world?  The definition JazzO gave of "enron" USED to be called creative accounting.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#53969
01/26/2002 3:02 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
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It looks like one of those words that become instant 'buzzwords' ... it is fashionable and then it joins the list of words slotted for banishment because of its overuse
Then there is the continuing fad of adding "gate" to every scandal!
Watergate was/is a real place but - c'mon - Monicagate?
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#53970
01/26/2002 4:16 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
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Watergate was/is a real place but - c'mon - Monicagate?Oh, come on, Wow, be fair. The concatenation probably suits the Lewinsky affair more aptly than most of the others! There was an uncovering, a coverup, then disclosure. There was a soupçon of plumbing, some grassroots investigation, getting to the bottom of things, break-ins and break-outs. It was different in that the investigators were looking for clues on the whole cigar rather than just at lipstick and fingerprints on the butt. But all in all, I'd say Monicagate is a fair cop! 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#53971
01/26/2002 6:39 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
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Monicagate question: Did he really prefer pearly gate to jade gate? Or did she prefer it to remain technically virgin.
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#53972
01/26/2002 9:18 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
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If this is a pressing question which is keeping you awake at nights, I suggest you write and ask him, Bill. History suggests he'll tell you the exact truth. You may even get really lucky and score a photo! Or, of course, you could ask Hillary.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#53973
01/26/2002 9:19 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
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If this is a pressing question which is keeping you awake at nights, I suggest you write and ask him, Bill. History suggests he'll tell you the exact truth. You may even get really lucky and score a photo! Or, of course, you could ask Hillary. I do so miss the Clintons ... 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#53974
01/28/2002 1:55 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Even before the collapse of Enron, I wondered at the selection of the corporate name, because it sounds too much like a slurred "end-around" to me. As it turns out, that was an especially apt moniker, but.
As to "enron" becoming a general use word: nah. It's just another in a long line of Mayfly words. Remember when people talked about getting "Norvilled?"
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#53975
01/28/2002 2:03 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
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And Anu points out another coinage today:
"Like a house of cards, Enron corporation came down a few weeks ago. Its bankruptcy proceedings opened what may turn out to be a Pandora's box for more than just the corporation itself. Journalists are using the freshly minted term Enronomics to describe this corporation's brand of economics
and accounting: off-the-record dealings, cooking books, and number sorcery that led to its rise and crash. Creative accounting has been going on for ages but it seems that Enron perfected it.
"Whether the term enronomics sticks, only time will tell. But this is a good example of how new words are coined. Some weather the test of time and get anointed into the venerated pages of dictionaries, while others fade like last year's fashion."
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#53976
01/28/2002 10:51 PM
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Posts: 3,467
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I feel most sorry for those people who put their money into the fictionalized retirement accounts that was nothing more than a box made of cards. Known, of course as the Enron Cupboard.
TEd
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#53977
02/07/2002 2:01 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
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prompted by AsPecially good reading elsewhere, I add this from today's Buzzwhack in case some of our newer members are not on the list: B U Z Z W O R D O F T H E D A Y
http://www.buzzwhack.com
ENRONYM: Any word formed from the base "Enron,"
usually signifying some form of corporate
malfeasance. Recently spotted Enronyms: Enronitis,
Enronify. Enronomics.
Nominated by Mark Worden
John Walston
BuzzWhacker-in-Chief
To see the full Buzzword Compliant Dictionary,
just click here.
http://www.buzzwhack.com
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#53978
02/07/2002 8:41 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
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Don't think the usage is actually all that new. Wasn't there a song from the 60s, "En Ron Ron"?
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#53979
02/13/2002 5:03 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
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Got this in the mail.. thought you'd all enjoy
Dear Kindhearted Friends...
Now that the holiday season has passed, please look into your heart to help those truly in need. Enron executives right here in America, not some obscure third world toilet of a country, are living at or just below the seven-figure salary level. This cannot be allowed to happen right here in our very own land of plenty.
As if that weren't bad enough, these same executives will be deprived of it as a result of the bankruptcy and current SEC investigation.
BUT NOW, YOU CAN HELP!
For a mere $20,835 a month, less than $700 a day (that's less than the cost of a large screen projection TV) you can help an Enron executive remain economically viable during his time of need. This contribution by no means solves the problem, as it barely covers their per diem...........but it's a start!
Almost $700 may not seem like a lot of money to you, but to an Enron exec it could mean the difference between a vacation spent sucking up to some congressional committee or legislator who happily took PAC money from Enron but now does not know who they are versus golfing in Florida or a
Mediterranean cruise or taking one of the corporate jets to check the new decorating at one of their houses in Aspen.
For you, seven hundred dollars is nothing more than rent, a couple of car payments or a mortgage payment. But to an Enron exec, $700 will almost
replace his per diem. Your commitment of less than $700 a day will enable an Enron exec to buy that home entertainment center, trade in the year-old Lexus for a new Ferrari, or enjoy a weekend in Rio.
HOW WILL I KNOW I'M HELPING?
Each month, you will receive a complete Arthur Andersen audited financial statement on the exec you sponsor. Detailed information about his stocks, bonds, real estate, and other investment holdings will be mailed to your home. You'll also get information on how he plans to invest his golden parachute. Just imagine the joy as you watch your executive's portfolio double or triple! Plus, upon signing up for this program, you will receive an unsigned photo of the exec (for a signed photo, please include an additional $5000.00). Put the photo on your refrigerator to remind you of other peoples' suffering.
HOW WILL HE KNOW I'M HELPING?
Your Enron exec will be told that he has a SPECIAL FRIEND who just wants to help in a time of need. Although the exec won't know your name, his cell phone's speed dialer will be reprogrammed to the number of a special operator who will be able to make collect calls to your home just in case additional funds are needed for unexpected expenses. You just never know if your exec might spot some "gotta have" bauble at a charity silent auction or a set of the latest greatest golf clubs or such necessities as tuition to private schools for the kids and we will not even bring up the subject of bigger, better, badder, faster boats.
YES, I WANT TO HELP!
Sign me up, I would like to sponsor an Enron executive!
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#53980
02/13/2002 6:53 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
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Great E-mail, Helen! Meanwhile, from last Sunday's NY Times magazine (reprinted here for the registration-phobic ): Enroned
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
I don't want to Enron the American people,'' said the Democrat Tom Daschle, defining the new verb in his next sentence. ''I don't want to see them holding the bag at the end of the day just like Enron employees have held the bag.''
The workers who have been enroned (if we're going to use the name as a general verb meaning ''cheated,'' drop the eponym's initial capital, as we did with boycott and bork) are called Enronites. (This specific group of cheatees takes a capital.)
Other energy-related companies, wrote Bethany McLean in Fortune, ''disclaimed any sort of Enronesque behavior.'' In forming an adjective, -esque strikes me as a more elegant suffix than -ish, as in enronish or the less critical enronlike. (Child- ish is ''puerile, immature,'' always with a pejorative connotation, while child- like is ''innocent,'' always endearing.)
Michael Wolff, a columnist for New York magazine, committed a late hit on Tina Brown when her Talk magazine folded, describing the buzzworthily glamorous editor as ''a little enronish.'' This caused the linguistically savvy Jim Sullivan of The Boston Globe to note that the adjective ''enronish captures the spirit of the big magazine cannonball but not its style. It is clunky. Enronian rolls off the tongue. Someone responsible for large-scale destruction is then an 'enronista.' The process of destruction: enronism. The verb is simply the name, as in 'He got enroned last Thursday.'''
Note the general agreement about the spelling of the verb. The o in Enron is pronounced ah, as in ''on,'' and not oh, as in ''throne.'' When adding -ed after the single n, however, the word appears to invite the pronunciation rhyming with ''enthroned.'' Should we, then, double the n to produce enronned? No. If this has been worrying you, stop worrying. The analogy to follow is that of environ, as in Lincoln's ''I am environed with difficulties'' -- one n, pronounced ah, not oh. To enron has a lot more snap than the unimaginative to enronize.
The suffix on is considered by corporate image makers in the energy and technology fields to be a futuristic syllable -- hence Exxon and Chevron, Raytheon and Micron. In the naming of the merged Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth companies in 1986, the consultants Lippincott &Margulies suggested ''Enteron,'' of Greek origin, which began with the first syllable of ''energy'' and concluded with the slick, with-it on. What's more, a specialized industrial sense of enteron was reported to be ''a pipeline system transmitting nourishment.''
However, when it was pointed out to the directors that the common medical meaning of enteron was ''alimentary canal, intestines, guts,'' company officials hastily demanded that a new name be found evocative of energy and the future but with no suggestion of upset stomach or bowel movement. I confirmed this history of corporate nomenclature in a call to Mark Palmer, a spokesman for the bankrupt company. ''Legend has it,'' he added, ''that they told the naming firm that they had 24 hours to come up with something else or they wouldn't pay them a plug nickel -- and they came up with Enron.'' Palmer seemed relieved that was all he was being asked about.
The namers did not worry about the association with football's end run or the possible play on ''take the money enron.'' In future corporate naming, en- is very likely to be avoided as a prefix, and the suffix -on is off.
He writes a wonderful column. I recommend bookmarking the link for y'all who are deeply interested in modern usage and don't see the brick n mortar version. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/10/magazine/10ONLANGUAGE.html
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