And the nominees for best Internet synonyms are…
I always get a good chuckle hearing people say something other than “Internet.” Having personally celebrated over 50 years* online, these are my favorite alternatives:
- Cyberspace. A fancy word presumably created by school teachers to give the simple sounding Internet a sense of exploration. Use sparingly for comedic delivery.
- Information Super Highway. School teachers that took the glitzy sounding Cyberspace to the next level. Never use in serious situations.
- Intertubes. A popular synonym created by internet denizens and intended to be funny. It’s sorta tired now, though still funny if spoken by a casual internet user.
- The Internets. Another popular synonym used by internet denizens to intentionally sound ignorant. Still funny.
- The Net. An abbreviated alternative to Internet. Do not use unless you want to sound simian.
- The World Wide Web. Though accurate, this one sounds sophisticatedly stupid. Consider it deprecated.
- The WWW. Can be funny when said using a southern accent, but it should be avoided.
- The Web. This one’s okay, but use Internet instead or “online” as an adverb.
- Infobahn. A portmanteau of autobahn and information. I need to use this one more.
Am I missing any?
*Really 14 years
April 1st, 2008 at 8:16 am
Some of my favorites that my friends and I use / made up are “Intornet” and “On The Line”. Much funnier spoken aloud and in context of goofing with my pals. Not funny at all written down.
Personally, I like to incredulously seek clarification when people say “the Web” or “the Net”. “The WORLD WIDE Web??” Or “the INTER-net?!”
April 1st, 2008 at 10:04 am
There’s also the mildly amusing and somewhat tedious “sextuple-u” But then you have to explain what it means to everyone so as not to sound racy.
“No, get it? Each of the three W’s are two U’s, so there’s six of them? … Sextuple … Yeah it means six … Hello? … Are you still there? …”
Oh, and I like “The Cloud.” So mysteriously appealing…
April 1st, 2008 at 11:20 am
Series of tubes.
April 1st, 2008 at 11:46 am
The Interwebs.
April 1st, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Any reference to Al Gore. I.E. The Brainchild of Al Gore, Al Gore’s invention etc.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I’m hearing Interbutts a lot lately. Although admittedly only online.