Whuffie
December 14th, 2007
Everyone seemed to be talking recently about “w00t” being declared word of the year by some dictionary, which is maybe why this stuck out at me.
Was just reading CodingHorror’s post on blacklists, and noted that he quoted Mark Pilgrim using Whuffie in a sentence, with no reference or explanation at all; nor did Jeff see the need to explain it. That was sort of cool, I thought; I didn’t think the word had had the time or exposure to be out there with no explanation needed.
So, I wonder when “whuffie” will make it’s way into a dictionary?
In case you are completely lost and haven’t yet opened a new tab to Google it, “whuffie” was the reputation-based currency in Cory Doctorow’s fine novel Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom, which I highly recommend. It’s also free to download, so you really have no excuse.