ebode n. favourite website

Derived from electronic abode, ebode is a brand-spanking new word to describe your online 'haunts' and often visited websites. Before ebode arrived the question would have been 'what are your favourites websites?' which reeks of early 2005-ness. Now, you can ask 'what are your ebodes?'; much more palatable.

The purpose of this website is to promote the use of ebode amongst the online community and therefore succeed in contributing to the continuously expanding English language. It is an intriguing concept that the evolution of our language is in our hands; and this is a perfect opportunity to demonstrate this. We sincerely hope you will all join us in this pioneering endeavour.

As soon as it was uttered, it sounded just right and it intuitively fitted the definition. It was as though the word has always existed but had not been discovered until now...

To help popularise this word there are several courses of action open to you. Please read our Top Ten promotional techniques and choose as appropriate:

Top Ten List

1. Use it in conversation; either in a chatroom, forum, IM or even in person. It's up the verbaliser on the details.
2. Type it somewhere on tinternet - people will read it and also it will be picked up by Googles for it.
3. Email ebode.co.uk to all your friends. Or work colleagues. Or even people you haven't contacted for a number of years, but would like to have an excuse to do so.
4. If you have children then whilst educating them on various great words such as mooch, peruse, girth, jam and badger, slip in ebode too.
5. If you are thinking of getting a dog then get it. And call it Ebode. We take no responsibility for any embarrassment as a result of Ebode the dog being ridiculed by his chums Rex, Rover and Spot.
6. If you are a webmaster then rather than having a 'make this page your home page' thingy, change it to 'make this page your ebode'.
7. Pick up a dictionary and scribble the above definition between ebb and ebony, or as appropriate. This can be written in your own dictionary but even better would be the ones in public lending establishments and bookshops. Go on, we dare you!
8. If you are mentally unbalanced then repeat the shiny new word in question to yourself as you cluck your way down the street. Make sure you wear cabbages for shoes and an old man's mac. Random arm movements is also a successful way to draw attention to yourself.
9. Invite your friends over to your ebode. Then when they turn up at your house explain that they misheard and that you meant your favourite website. Take this opportunity to explain the word fully to them as they will be temporarily confused and rooted to the spot. Then once you feel you have got your point across, politely ask them to leave. They will wonder away muttering words of an insulting nature towards your good self. You will probably never see them again but do not worry about this as you can make new friends on your ebodes.
10. And we hope you will all take part in our favourite course of action which is ... post a letter or postcard to us at our ebode address:

Sidney Hukkle et al
ebode.co.uk
The Internet
ZX81 1PC

For the price of a second class stamp you can amuse yourself and us. And maybe the odd postman. If everyone who read this posted one letter then we'd have wasted a lot of people's time (including our own) which is a pleasant thought.

The contents of these letters can be anything from insults directed at us to a strange story about how your pet goldfish transformed itself into a badger because he wanted to learn Slovakian. He had heard that there was a market for badgers who are multilingual in Badgerish and Slovakian. Apparently Slovakian businessbadgers frequently make the UK their home. Makes you think. As you can see, the possibilities are endless.

Or if you have better things to do than write letters to random people who will never even receive them, then you can write on your letter what better things you could be doing if you weren't writing your letter.

This is also an experiment to see what would happen to these letters. Where will they end up? In the bin? Crumpled in the clenched fist of an angry postman? Or even at our house; that would be impressive.

Our hopes and dreams...

With like-minded individuals following the above suggestions or even methods of their own creation, this word could potentially reach billions of people. We hope that even the inhabitants of the most primitive of societies who don't even have tinterweb will be saying it. Upon successful proliferation it will be included into the lexicon of the future: you will have helped shape the future of our language.

Further, if you participate in the promotion of this new word then you will be able to congratulate yourself on being one of the pioneers of this word. It is also a humble demonstration that together people can achieve great things (a subjective opinion in this case!) and ideally will open people's eyes to future activities.

or further information or advice on ebodes then please email:

• theonlywordyouwilleverneed at ebode dot co dot uk or
• ihatethewordebodeandallitstandsfor at ebode dot co dot uk or even
• ilikespoonsbutonlyifasmallchildnamedclivegivesthemtome at ebode dot co dot uk

or even info at ebode dot co dot uk if you are normal. We would prefer if you were not normal though; means we are not alone. Anything and everything will work.

If the word ebode has been used in this context before then we apologise to the user. We would also like to congratulate them on being a genius.

Go forth and multiple (the use of the word ebode) and you will have contributed to a movement that will make the world a better place. Or at the very least, make the world have one extra word.

Thank you for reading.

Yours sincerely,

Sidney Hukkle et al
September 2005