Intermediate - Techie Talk

Words like “technique”, “technical” and “technology” can be traced back to the ancient Greek noun τέχνη, which means “art”, “science”, “craft”, “skill”, “work of art” and many other things.

“Techie” is a relatively new English word which can be used as a noun or an adjective. It was probably coined in the early 1990s. Here are some examples which you won’t find anywhere on the Web:

(1) The BBC wants its Web service to attract more than the average techie, says Andrew Culf (The Guardian 26.9.1996: 6)
(2) This has a less zealous, less “techie” feel than other mags in the field. (The Guardian 8.4.1996: 14)

At the beginning of the podcast Ehab says: “al-dars al-yawm huwa an” (Today’s lesson is about […]), then he inserts a filler (ﻴﻌﻨﻲ) before the predicate. The subject appears first as a noun phrase (ﺍﻠﺪﺮﺱ), then as a pronoun (ﻫﻮ). In this instance “huwa” functions as a “damiir (ﻀﻤﻴﺮ) fasl (ﻓﺼﻞ)” or pronoun of separation. The “damiir al-fasl” is used in MSA in order to separate the subject from the predicate, especially in equational sentences where ambiguity might arise. So far the “damiir al-fasl” has never been mentioned in any of the podcasts. Perhaps it might be discussed in a lesson devoted to Arabic grammar.

As a graduate of Caltech (20 years ago), I must say that I think the term "Techie" has been around forever.. and in contrast to the term "Techer", i.e. a student of Caltech. Which has a similar conotation since Techers tend to be very hi-tech. Remember the song, "the future's so bright, I gotta wear shades? (ca 1989)"...
excerpt of lyrics:

"Well I'm heavenly blessed and worldly wise
I'm a peeping-tom techie with x-ray eyes
Things are going great, and they're only getting better I'm doing all right, getting good grades. The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades. I gotta wear shades"

So I really don't think this is a new term, at all... perhaps it's new in the UK? Or just become more mainstream these days?

Anyway, thanks for the new vocabulary. I need to learn this term for techie in Arabic. BTW. Does Arabic have any word for "nerd"?

@ jenkki

“Nerd” can denote (1) a person who is boring or stupid or (2) a person who is very interested in computers. When used in the first sense, “nerd” might be rendered by words like “mughaffal” (ﻤﻐﻓﻝ) or “'ahmaq” (ﺃﺤﻤﻖ). (I could cite about twenty other Arabic words like this!) When used in the second sense, “nerd” corresponds directly to ﻨﻴﺮﺪ. There is an article entitled “nerd” (ﻨﻴﺮﺪ) in the Arabic version of Wikipedia. If you misspell this word by omitting the second letter you’ll get ﻨﺮﺪ, which means “dice”.

I think it’s an exaggeration to say that “techie” has always been part of the English language. The word wasn’t recorded in the first edition of “Collins English Dictionary”, which was very up-to-date when it was published in 1979.

The keyboard clicking was hilarious. Really enjoyed this one. Thanks!