Date: Fri, 2 Jan 1998 15:19:14 EST

From: GarethB2 GarethB2[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: Re: Deletia (Was Re: Dilbert for WOTY?)



In a message dated 1/2/98 5:37:08 PM, downingg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IS2.NYU.EDU wrote:



Is this a latinism indicating that there was "deleted wording" here? How is

it formed, I mean morphologically? (Not being sarcastic here, just honestly

curious.) I know the philological/editorial term "delenda" (things to be

deleted; cf. memoranda "things to be remembered"), but not "deletia."



I have no idea about the etymology of "deletia." It's an old Usenet

convention. It's not in the New Hacker's Dictionary, but it is in the MS

Computer Dictionary (3rd Edition):



deletia n. Omitted material. The term is used in responses to Usenet or

mailing list messages to indicate that some unnecessary material has been

excluded from the incorporated message being answered.



I wonder if it's not a blending of delete+minutia, but that would just be a

wild guess. Also, given the hacker propensity for humorous "pendatry-joshing"

coinages, it very well could be "deliberately fractured Latin." I'll ask

around.



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