Ask HN: What are some words that you learned on Hacker News?

16 points by neilyio 1 year ago | 29 comments
I'll start. "Orthogonal".
  • LinuxBender 1 year ago
    "bollard" [1] - I always called them steel poles with concrete inside, buried in the ground. Someone here corrected me and I learned something. Adding to that I never associated them with the more artistic versions as I assumed those were weaker or just for looks.

    [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollard

  • krapp 1 year ago
    Surprised no one has mentioned "thither" as often as dang uses it.

    Haven't seen "yon" yet.

    • replwoacause 1 year ago
      “Your pricing is too high” and I learned them in that order too
      • mtmail 1 year ago
        moat
        • fragmede 1 year ago
          confabulate - what LLMs do
          • atleastoptimal 1 year ago
            grok
            • austin-cheney 1 year ago
              Counter-intuitive
              • defrost 1 year ago
                to viscerally delve into psephology .. !an AI
                • gadders 1 year ago
                  That "nonce" has another meaning relating to cryptography.
                • fuzztester 1 year ago
                  "conflating" is one that I did not know of earlier.

                  "drunk the kool-aid" is another, though a phrase, not a word.

                  "cromulent" is another

                  • tomcam 1 year ago
                    Conflate is seldom used correctly on HN. It means combine but now people use it when they mean confuse.
                    • fuzztester 1 year ago
                      Oh wow, didn't know that, thanks. Yes, I've mainly or only seen used it on HN in the sense of confuse, or mistake one thing or concept for another.
                      • giantg2 1 year ago
                        Actually, there are multiple definitions of conflate. One of these does have confuse as a synonym.
                        • tomcam 1 year ago
                          Yes. I should have been more precise and described it as a secondary definition (which has become the primary definition in recent years).
                    • silb 1 year ago
                      bifurcate
                      • tomcam 1 year ago
                        TFA (the fucking article)
                        • zufallsheld 1 year ago
                          Alternatively the fine article.
                          • tomcam 1 year ago
                            Hey! I like that much better. Thanks!
                        • nachox999 1 year ago
                          wastimbolo
                          • piotrke 1 year ago
                            'churn' and 'churn rate'
                            • perilunar 1 year ago
                              "heteroscedasticity"
                              • nicbou 1 year ago
                                “Order of magnitude”
                                • sturza 1 year ago
                                  enshitification
                                  • nomoreban 1 year ago
                                    [flagged]