Here's an extract from a newspaper called "A guide to 21st century jargon" I won't copy it here because
a) It's rather long
b) I'm not convinced how intellectual property laws relate to newsgroups like this (perhaps that would be another thread)

Anyway ...

If you were in a balloon with limited capacity for words and you were allowed to throw away one piece of jargon (not necessarily from the article) which would it be be?

Alternative you might like to argue to preserve one piece of jargon forever.

http://www.sptimes.com/News/011000/Technology/A_guide_to_21st_centu.shtml

To be honest, though many of them seem clumsy, few, if any, really offend me. They all seem to possess the virtue of at least being cionages - in that they do not distort the meaning of a word we already use for something else. I don't like 'digerati', probably because I think it should be 'digiterati', but that's just prejudice (I'm British-wise orientated, like).

'digiterati'

Thought that was sampled-form Rolf Harris?

I would definitely throw away all those nice little titles they like to give whole blocks of the people; baby boomers, gen-xers, yuppies, dinks... It irks me beyond measure.

In reply to:

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I would definitely throw away all those nice little titles

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This phrase reminded me that I meant to congratulate you on acquiring a new "title" yourself, now that you have passed 200 posts. I was wondering how the various designations would sound in French, but with the exception of addict and journeyman, the designations are disappointingly similar to English. Does intoxiqué sound about right for addict? I was never particularly enamoured of la langue française, and was even stupid enough to say so to a French (not Québecoise) friend of mine.

Ha, thanks MaxQ I hadn't noticed. Whenever I change titles the next one always feels so far away. For a few days I am constantly going back and forth seeing up to where I am and then it pops out of my mind. Now poof and voila, I am suddenly morphed.

I think we’d have a tough time with French titles. We have to contend with the female/male aspect of most words and some things just don't translate well. It would look something like this:

Stranger: étranger, étrangère
Newbie : petit nouveau, petite nouvelle
Journeyman : journalier, journalière
Member : membre (yes, no feminine or masculine)
Enthusiast : passionné, passionnée
Addict : not really translatable. We add the suffix “omane” to the thing the person is addicted to, as in toxicomane, nymphomane. Awadomane is a little hard to digest. Intoxiqué/intoxiquée only sounds nice when you give the context (like she is intoxiquée by AWAD) or else it means drunk.
Old hand : not translatable. We don’t even have a cutesy title to mean the same thing.

And the reason you have never been enamoured with la langue française is because you haven’t ever been French kissed . Now you just march on up to France and take care of that. You’ll have a whole new outlook on it . And if those snooty French ladies can’t take care of you, wade on over here, the Québecoises love the accent.

if those snooty French ladies can’t take care of you, wade on over here

Now, wait just a dag-goned minute, there, bel! I get him first! He can just stop by here, and I'll send him on up to you in great shape! (Once he recovers from being hung over on our Kentucky bourbon.)

Old hand : not translatable
What about "vieux routier"?

Old hand : not translatable. We don’t even have a cutesy title to mean the same thing.

How about a sinister one - eminence grise (For some reason I can imagine tsuwm as one of those - cackling and plotting with Richelieu - but Jackie doesn't really seem to fit in that role.) Maybe, given her penchant for the gutter, she could become Madame.

>I can imagine tsuwm as one of those - cackling and plotting with Richelieu...

it's really not nice to say cackling around an OP.

Vieux routier = old truck driver

Somehow, I don't think it conveys the same sense of wizened experience that Old Hand does. I picture some old, chain-smoking dude, his checkered shirt missing the bottom button; riding in the cab of his old beat-up Mack truck with "Born to ride the white line" spray-painted on the doors and the booby-chick mud flaps, pulling on the bullhorn-line as he sees a young chickie by the side of the road.

it's really not nice to say cackling around an OP.

Oh dear tsuwm, are you going to get all touchy on us? (Or touchy-feely?)

...and it's even less nice to say "touchy-feely" to a(n) hOP. (notice how we're still on-topic here?)