The lesson from elementary school in which we learned about venerable Synonym and brave Homonym no longer cuts it for the times in which we live. Students of the present and near future would be better served by learning about T9onyms, words that are spelled with the same numbers in predictive text.
Generally, T9onyms lead to plain-jane confusion, as with "me-of" or "if-he" T9onymy. T9 will occasionally provide an alternative that works, or even an upgrade. When I wanted to ask a friend about the whereabouts of his "peeps," T9 came up with "peers." Fine, and actually thanks. However, just as it giveth, it also taketh away - when recently responding to a friend's bailing, I wanted the confident "booooooooooo," but T9 gave me the desperate "comonononon," and I pressed send before I realized what was happening.
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2 comments:
my iphone wants "eh" to be WB.
Ah, iPhone T9onyms are a whole new ballgame. Interesting fact: the arrangement of keys on the QWERTY keyboard isn't designed to have the most commonly used letters within easy reach; rather, the space between them is maximized so that back when they were typewriter keys, they wouldn't jam as much.
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