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Look up e-, i-, cyber-, virtual in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Internet-related prefixes include "e-", "i-", "cyber-", "info-","i", "techno-", "net-", and "virtual", that are prefixed to a wide range of existing words to form new, Internet-related, flavours of existing concepts. Joseph Straubhaar and Robert LaRose. Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology. Thomson Learning, 6. ISBN 7302095760. Paul McFedries. "The (Pre) Fix Is In", IEEE Spectrum, 2004-07-30.
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"e-", "cyber-", and "virtual" are often used in names coined for "electronic" or computer-related counterparts of a pre-existing product or service. Of the three, "virtual" is generally considered to be misused in this context.
"e-", standing for the word "electronic" is used in the names of e-mail ("electronic mail"), e-commerce ("electronic commerce"), e-business ("electronic business"), e-banking ("electronic banking"), and e-book ("electronic book"). In this way its use (to describe what it follows as the electronic form of an otherwise pre-existing entity) is grammatically and contextually accurate.
"cyber-", derived from "cybernetic", is used in the names of cybersex, cyberspace, cyberpunk, cyberhomes and cyberhate, but has been largely surpassed by "e-".Michael Quinion (1999-01-16). THE E- PREFIX. World Wide Words. "cyber-" also largely maintains grammatical and contextual accuracy, in that "cybernetic" denotes control of speech and functional processes. To the extent that it is used in the computer or electronic context to denote control (typically electronic or remote) of the word it precedes, it is used accurately. See, e.g., "Cyborg" under History, below. To the extent that "cyber" is used to describe entities existing (or events occurring) "in cyberspace," its use is arguably accurate as well. However, the term "cyberspace" (one of the earliest and most widespread uses of the prefix "cyber-") was itself one of the least grammatically accurate uses, in that cyberspace is not actual space electronically or remotely controlled. Thus "virtual space" or "virtual universe" would have been a more grammatically accurate term although arguably lacking the existential connotation provided by "cyberspace." This connotation gives the term a contextual accuracy and prevents its being lured astray by association with the popular term "virtual world," which has a very different and grammatically accurate common meaning.
"virtual" is correctly used in virtual reality, in that virtual reality simulates reality and in many ways approaches reality. The word "virtual" means nearly, almost, or simulated. Thus the key to accurate use of "virtual" as a prefix is that what follows it must not be the actual or real version of itself. "Virtual" describes that which approaches or simulates. "Virtual reality" is not actual reality; hence the label is appropriate. But such misnomers as "virtual communication" (for electronic communication) are entirely inaccurate because electronic communication is actual communication; therefore, it is not "virtual." It is e-communication. It can even be cyber-communication where typed information is converted to an audio format for the recipient, although arguably that would be e-communication with cyber-speech.
These prefixes are productive. In Straubhaar\'s and LaRose\'s words, they are "added to almost everything nowadays". Quinion notes that most of these formations are nonce words, that will never be seen again. He observes that coinages such as "e-health" are unneeded, given that it is simply a coinage used to express the application of telecommunications to medicine, for which the name "telemedicine" already exists. He similarly points out the redundancy of "e-tail" with "e-commerce" and "e-business". Martin likewise characterizes many of these words as "fad words", and opines that many of them may disappear once the technology that resulted in their coinage has become better accepted and understood. As an example, he opines that "when using computers becomes the standard way to do business, there will be no need to call it \'e-business\' — it may be just \'business\'".Rodney Martin (2004). Young Writers Guide. Era Publications, 150. ISBN 1741200407.
There is some confusion over whether these prefixes should be hyphenated or in upper case. Quinion notes that "e-mail" was originally hyphenated and lowercase, and attributes the later forms "email", "E-mail", and "Email" to uncertainty on the parts of newer Internet users who came across "e-mail" in the 1990s and were uncertain about whether the initial letter was an abbreviation or a prefix. Smith prescribes that the prefix "e-" should always be lowercase and hyphenated.Ronald D. Smith (2003). Becoming a Public Relations Writer: A Writing Process Workbook for the Profession. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 402. ISBN 0805842608. Other grammarians, particularly descriptive (as opposed to prescriptive) grammarians, disagree. For decades, hyphens have been dropped from formerly hyphenated words. As the combined meanings become more commonplace and readily understood, the need for hyphens subsides. In 2007 alone, the Oxford English Dictionary dropped approximately 1,600 hyphens, acknowledging that such words and phrases as bumblebee, ice cream, pigeonhole, test tube, and crybaby no longer required them. The hyphen\'s short shelf life (formerly shelf-life) is particularly notable in compound nouns, of which email is an abbreviation. If anything, grammatical accuracy would arguably mandate an apostrophe (e\'mail) and not a hyphen. But new apostrophes are rare, which may be a result of the widespread misunderstanding of their proper use.
Trappl credits William Gibson and his novel Neuromancer with triggering a "cyber- prefix flood" in the 1980s, however the use of the Cyber- prefix started well before this.
In 1966, Dr Kit Peddler and Gerry Davis created the Cyberman for the UK television sci-fi series Doctor Who. In 1968 another fictional character Doctor Cyber appeared in DC Comics Wonder Woman.
By the 1970\'s, the Control Data Corporation (CDC) sold the Cyber range of cupercomputers, establishing the word Cyber as synonymous with computing.
Certainly "cyber" began its expansion into common usage as a prefix through science fiction. "Cyborg" books and movies, such as 1984\'s "The Terminator," foretold of the combination of robotic (cybernetic) skeletons wrapped in live human (organic) tissue, with the organic controlled by the mechanical; hence the name "cybernetic organism" or "cyb-org".
McFedries observes that a backlash against the use of "e-" and "cyber-" can be traced to the late 1990s, quoting Hale and Scanlon requesting writers in 1999 to "resist the urge to use this vowel-as-cliché" when it comes to "e-" and calling "cyber-" "terminally overused".Robert Trappl (February 1998). "Preface". 14th European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research (EMCSR\'98), April 14 — 17, 1998 at the University of Vienna, Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies. ISBN 3 85206 139 3. Constance Hale and Jessie Scanlon (1999). Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age. New York: Broadway Books.
"i" is not a generic prefix used to describe a type of service or product; rather, it is used in the branding of individual products. Where as e-mail refers to electronic mail in general, iMail, if it existed, would probably refer to an individual e-mail service. The i prefix is especially connected to Apple Inc., who first popularized it with the iMac and iBookVaughn, Paul, "The Mac Guy: Potential buyer wants big sound, and he can have it," April 21, 2007 at mysanantonio.com and now keeps a long line of products starting with i, including iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iLife and others. Apple initially said the "i" stood for "internet";Manjoo, Farhad, "Grads Want to Study on EMacs, Too," April 30, 2002, wired.com.
Despite its close association with Apple, the i prefix has been used by other companies as well, such as Google (iGoogleLiedtke, Michael, "Google dubs personal home page \'iGoogle\'," April 30, 2007, Associated Press, as available on msnbc.msn.com). It has also been used extensively by shareware and freeware developers in the branding of their products, probably on purpose to be associated with Apple\'s i-products.
While a lower-case i followed by a capital letter would generally be considered a blatant error to the rules of English grammar, in these cases it becomes the only correct way to write it since it is usually a product name. Hence, unlike e-mail, a word such as iPod should never be hyphenated or capitalized in any other way, even in the beginning of a sentence.
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