Lexical Compendium

Wait... what is this? Sometimes I come across a word, phrase, idiom, quote, reference, bit of slang, person of interest, etc that either I don't know or I find amusing, interesting, etc. This is a collection of those items so that I can refer back to them in emails, texts, etc.

Recent Entries:

Tag Cloud eponymous grammar science technology television vocabulary ai acronym internet music comics software podcast slang games quote idiom entomology jargon computer-science netspeak space tipofmytongue politics movie history legal

Streisand Effect

The Streisand Effect is the phenomenon where the harder someone tries to suppress information, the more attention it ends up getting. The term originated in early internet culture after Barbra Streisand attempted to suppress photographs of her Malibu home in 2003 by suing a photographer. Before the lawsuit, the photo had been downloaded exactly six times. After the lawsuit became public? Over 400,000 views in a single month.4 What was meant to be hidden instead became famous.

In July 2025, The Epstein Files consumed much of the news cycle. Donald Trump and his administration had campaigned on the promise of releasing these files to the public. But Trump seemingly flip-flopped on the issue, instead urging his followers to simply "move on." The result: a rift in the MAGA world. Far-right activist Laura Loomer remarked, "The more Truth Social posts that are posted about this are going to create a Streisand effect."


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References:

  1. Definition: Streisand Effect
  2. Wikipedia: Streisand effect
  3. Politico: Playbook: Trump world searches for off-ramp on Epstein
  4. Techdirt: Turns Out Barbra Streisand Is Aware Of The Streisand Effect, But Seems Confused About It
  5. Independent: Fox & Friends does just what Trump wants – they pretend the Epstein fiasco doesn’t exist

Tags: slang , politics , eponymous , internet , netspeak

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glaze

To glaze is to excessively praise or flatter someone, often in an over-the-top, cringe, or sarcastic manner. The implication is often that the recipient was unworthy of such praise. This slang word was popularized in online spaces like TikTok.

I first heard it when Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI) had the following Tweet exchange:

@sama:
we updated GPT-4o today! improved both intelligence and personality.

@StockLizardKing:
It’s been feeling very yes-man like lately

Would like to see that change in future updates

@sama:
yeah it glazes too much

will fix


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References:

  1. Definition: glaze
  2. @sama Tweet
  3. The Verge: New ChatGPT ‘glazes too much,’ says Sam Altman

Tags: slang , vocabulary , netspeak

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vibecoding

Vibecoding (also vibe coding) is the act of developing software by purely defining a project and letting AI do the work.

The term was popularized earlier this year (in 2025) by OpenAI founding member Andrej Karpathy. It has since taken off and I hear it everywhere.

The NYT's Kevin Roose wrote an article on his experience with vibecoding and also covered it in an episode of Hard Fork.

Update May 2025: added Freethink's piece about the technical and cultural shift happening around vibecoding.


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References:

  1. Wikipedia: vibe coding
  2. NYT: Not a Coder? With A.I., Just Having an Idea Can Be Enough
  3. Tweet: @karpathy 02 Feb 2025 - @karpathy's tweet about "vibe coding"
  4. Hard Fork: Is Google Search Cooked? + We're Getting a U.S. Crypto Reserve? + What You're Vibecoding
  5. Freethink: Vibe coding is rewriting the rules of technology

Tags: slang , ai , podcast , software , netspeak

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