Comments on: New Words of Mormon

By: Patricia Karamesines

Patricia Karamesines — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:48:19 +0000

Dennis, I agree that LDS, along with just about everybody else, ought to seek to communicate with those involved in the culture and with others not involved in more engaging ways. Many of the terms Kent’s exploring need held up for scrutiny, which is what this post does. I’m interested in seeing those expressing dislike for Mo-terms like “bloggernacle” being more specific about why they feel so strongly about them.

Many of these words, like “permablogger,” “bloggernacle,” seem garden variety word play such as occurs in any group having some fun with its in house language. Maybe it’s telestial kingdom level creativity, but it’s still creativity. I think such words are more than a little tongue-in-cheek and giggle at themselves.

By: Kent Larsen

Kent Larsen — Sun, 11 May 2008 12:03:53 +0000

Dennis:
You’re right that insider lingo can exclude others. BUT it also has its purpose. No one coined the term “Bloggernacle” to exclude those that aren’t participants, or even to sound hip. And in the Church we don’t use FHE, PEC, D&C, etc. to make others feel like outsiders. We use these terms because the have a role and a function that can’t be met as easily with the words we have available. Without “Bloggernacle” we would have to say something like “Mormon Blogosphere” or “All the Mormon Blogs” or something.

Every group creates these terms — they are an element of the group’s own culture. If you remove these terms, the culture is weaker. It is true that not all of these terms are as valuable as others. Some are laden with negative attitudes that we probably don’t want in our culture. Others are simply not that useful, or are tied to things that aren’t permanent (I can see the Church eliminating PEC in favor of some other meeting, and the term PEC would then eventually be replaced. This has already happened with terms like Gleaners and M-Men). But in the end, we need at least some of these terms for the development of Mormon culture.

Why do we need Mormon Culture? I already addressed that in my post
Why we need Mormon Culture.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Sat, 10 May 2008 22:34:41 +0000

I dislike all these Bloggernacle lingo terms, including “Bloggernacle.”

I think they’re often used simply to sound hip. And when groups use these terms a ton in a very in-group way (such as Mormons), it makes us sound silly and off-putting.

Imagine what it’s like for a visitor at one of our meetings to hear repeated acronyms such as FHE, PEC, D&C, etc. Honestly, people, let’s make a greater effort to communicate in a more enticing way…

By: Anneke Majors

Anneke Majors — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:37:01 +0000

My college friends and I tried to popularize the term rexbourgeois. We mostly just succeeded in making a few people in the room chuckle and the rest of them look at us quizzically. It's a necessary addition to the language, though. What other adjective could properly modify tole painting? I've also heard the terms Udaho and Utard used among church youth of the not-from-Utah variety. Utard is only mildly derogatory, and only usually used for friends who have decided to move south. "What? You're going to UVSC? I should have known you'd become a Utard." Oh, that also reminds me of a bit of Provo trash talk that a friend of mine was caught using: referring to the "Other University" as UVSCHS.

By: Blog Kangaroo

Blog Kangaroo — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:59:07 +0000

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By: The Only True and Living Nathan

The Only True and Living Nathan — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:01:12 +0000

Heh. In my elders quorum, even the term “blogosphere” would be met with blank stares.

By: Kent Larsen

Kent Larsen — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:12:47 +0000

Reading all these, I’m now wondering if perhaps I’m wrong. Is Mormonism just the muse for anti-Mormon linguistic creativity?

Ydaho is great – that’s more a Mormon creation. And the “permablogger” thing is fascinating — it seems like kind of an obvious word given “permalink” — a neologism used frequently on blogs (including on this one).

Still, I’d love to see something from more traditional sources.

By: Seth R.

Seth R. — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:45:29 +0000

“moron” is also generically used as a replacement for “Mormon” in some corners of the anti-Mormon and ex-Mormon worlds.

By: Zelph

Zelph — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:05:31 +0000

Don’t forget that now that communication is written down on the internet, that people spell the word “Mormon” by capitalizing the letters like this: “MORmON”, which is a derogatory way of pointing out the word “moron” embedded in the word.

By: Thom

Thom — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:39:50 +0000

I happened onto the website MrDeity.com where the creater of that YouTube series identifies himself as a “Forman,” or a “former Mormon.”

Did anybody mention “NoMo” meaning prett much the same things as “Forman?”