Netymology: From Apps to Zombies: A Linguistic Celebration of the Digital World

Tom Chatfield is a freelance author, consultant, game writer and theorist. His first book Fun, Inc. was published to worldwide acclaim and he has done design, writing and consultancy work for games and media companies, including Google and Intervox.

Composed of 100 bite-sized entries of 400 to 600 words each, Netymology weaves together stories, etymologies and analyses around digital culture’s transformation and vocabulary. Chatfield presents a kaleidoscopic, thought-provoking tour through the buried roots of the symbols, speech, and mannerisms we have inherited from the digital age: from the @ and Apple symbols, to HTML and Trojan horses, to the twisted histories of new forms of slang, memes, text messages and gaming terms; how language itself is being shaped by technology, how it is changing us.