Ask Mike: What’s a widget?
Hey Guys,
It’s funny how the definitions of words can change. Take the word “widget.” Not so long ago, a widget was shorthand for a fictional product, because widgets didn’t exist. That’s not the case anymore.
Now, widgets are what we call handy pieces of software that people run in the background of their computers. But they’re not just on laptops. They’re also on TVs, phones, and, by the time you read this, probably your toaster, running shoes, and salad bowl. I got to wondering, who coined the original term?
Best I can tell, the original term (meaning a fictional product) was coined by playwrite George Kaufman in his play called “Beggar on Horseback.” According to an FAQ on word origins, the bit of dialogue went like this…
Son-in-law: “What business are we in?”
Father-in-law: “Widgets. We’re in the widget business.”
Son-in-law: “The widget business?”
Father-in-law: “Yes, sir! I’m the biggest manufacturer in the world of overhead and underground aerial widgets.”
A 1938 piece from The New Yorker explains that today’s definition isn’t the first time a widget meant something other than a fictional product. Back in the 1930s, widgets were the “the tiny wooden cylinders which carry orders & reports of sales through the Stock Exchange’s pneumatic tube system.” So, widgets go back a long way. Eat your heart out, gizmos.
Do you guys have a favorite made-up word you like to use in everyday conversation? I like “snuh,” although I can’t take credit for it. It comes from one of humanity’s finest minds — Homer J. Simpson.
Snuh,
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spagoosh
How about the word forum? Once known as the square of an ancient Roman city. Now we know it as an internet medium for open discussions. Or the word Gay? Once associated to happiness, now associated to homosexuals. The world’s languages are always changing.
my friends and I tend to say grrr-ness whenevr something is rlly irritating
A widget was also a commercially produced product from about thirty years ago. It was a small type of a scraper and I believe it was made by Gillette and used a single edge razor.
In the 60s there was a show called “Gidget”, a widget is that combined with a watermelon, therefore: Widget
A widget is also a name for certain software devices that be found at Widgets.com Thay run the gamut on their uses. Check it out.
there is also the widget that they put in beer and larger cans to keep it foamy, at least thats what we call em over in england
Actually a WIDGET is a razor blade set in a plastic handle and used to scrape or clean off a windshield on a vehicle. I have one and it works very well.
i forget the name of the beer but it says “With The Widget” on the side of the can and when you crack the beer it drops something in there to make the “perfect” head on the beer, and that’s the “widget”
I agree that a widget is a scrapper, which was basically a razor blade with a plastic grip. It’s full name was Gillette Widget Disposable Scraper and Cutter. My guess is that they were used to cut cocaine so they were no longer sold in that form. I doubt it was from lack of sales since they were popular.
Thanks for that!
Some more -useless but informative knowledge?
*Smile*
x
Le7
There was a product in the 1970′s called “Widget” that used a single-edged razor blade held in a yellow case for scraping, as well as slicing open boxes and packages (and, if you weren’t careful — fingers). The manufacturer was either Gillette or Schick, I don’t recall which.
There was also a “Widget Drive” which was used only in Apple’s Lisa Computer (does anyone remember that one?)
The logo of Delta Airlines is also called a Widget.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widget
A widget is a witty gadget.
Greg, that company would be Guinness.
Widgets, are rounded cholates wrapped certainly in those waffles, in different flavors., all chocolates really.
good
I hear it’s somewhat politically incorrect to refer to them as widgets, they prefer to be called “little apps”.
Yes, in the 60s, there were several films and a TV show called “Gidget”. The title character was a very short surfing-obssessed teenage girl. Her
nickname was a combination of “girl” and
“midget”=Gidget.
BTW, the TV series starred then-adolescent
Sally Field.
.well it was when i went to school
my clas mates would say whats that widget over there
and in other places it would be substituted for a child to understand the male anatomany when a mother would say to her son if you keep playijng with that it will fall off or put that damn widget away will ye
Chillax
not sure if it is a real word, but it is a combination of chill and relax
The definition of a widget; widgets can maximize screen space