Vaporware

[Dr. Goodword]

• vaporware •

Pronunciation: vay-pêr-wer • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass

Meaning: A computer product that has been announced or advertised but has not been produced and whose production is doubtful.

Notes: Today's word is a very recent compound noun that has not had time to spawn a lexical family, so it is a lexical orphan. Since it is a mass noun, it doesn't even have a plural form. It does have an alternate British spelling: vapourware.

In Play: Vaporware usually represents a failure or at least a long delay in software development: "A good thing about vaporware is that you can't download a virus from it." Word of the completed product must have gotten out somehow: "Announcing a smartphone a year in advance strongly suggests vaporware."

Word History: Today's Good Word was created by analogy with software. In an issue of her newsletter, Release 1.0 in 1983, Ester Dyson simply substituted vapor for soft. It originally referred only to software, but it currently is used to indicate hardware, too. Old French never touched Latin vapor "steam, heat", though, over time, it did become Modern French vapeur. English borrowed the Old French version. The word is akin to vapidus "flat (wine)". No one knows where either word came from.

Ware goes back to PIE wer- "to watch out (for), guard", hence warehouse. It is also the source of English wary, beware, and aware. English ward and warden share the same source. Old French picked up ward but, since French had no [w] sound, it used the closest sound to [w], [gw] spelled GU. The result: guard, which Middle English borrowed back. (Let's all now thank Daniel Obertance for recommending today's brand new—in linguistic time—Good Word.)

[jaa67]

I was surprised 'ware' in this word did not come from "thing that could be bought or sold" like hardware, copperware, etc.

[Slava]

I was surprised 'ware' in this word did not come from "thing that could be bought or sold" like hardware, copperware, etc.

But it does. The "thing that can be bought or sold" meaning comes from the "thing to watch over, to be ware of" meaning.

[jaa67]

Thank you very much. Now I see the connection....

[Philip Hudson]

I believe I worked on the very first set of vaporware produced.

[Slava]

I believe I worked on the very first set of vaporware produced.

Must have been a gas.

[Philip Hudson]

Touché!

[David Myer]

In the non-computer world, the word for vaporware is a gunna. All talk and no action. We're gunna add this feature soon. We're gunna offer free service with the next model. In politics, our awful Australian Prime Minister is a master of gunnas. He keeps making announcements but nothing happens.

David

[Slava]

I've always spelled it gonna, but then again I spell spelled spelled, not spelt, which is a kind of grain to me.

As for talking and not doing Down Under, do you mean something along the lines of the first panel of this comic?

[misterdoe]

I've always spelled it gonna, but then again I spell spelled spelled, not spelt, which is a kind of grain to me.

Sometime ago a now-retired co-worker sparked an interesting conversation about spelled vs. spelt. Apparently some younger co-workers were unaware of the grain called spelt.

[David Myer]

Brilliant cartoon Slava. Certainly sums up our current situation (which I wouldn't swap for yours!) And certainly illustrates the gunna approach of our leadership.

[Slava]

A use I came across today: "...legal vaporware—a press release, not a law." About a bill that doesn't really have any hope of doing what it purports to do.