B

(chat) be

B2G

• business-to-government
• business
• e-government
• e-
• government
• B2B
• business-to-business
• e-procurement services
• e-procurement service
• e-procurement
• procurement
• e-services
• e-service
• e-Services
• e-Service
• online government
• online
• BDSM

1. Meaning and etymology:
On the Internet, B2G is business-to-government (a variation of the term B2B, or business-to-business), the concept that businesses and government agencies can use central Web sites to exchange information and do business with each other more efficiently than they usually can off the Web. For example, a Web site offering B2G services could provide businesses with a single place to locate applications and tax forms for one or more levels of government (city, state or province, country, and so forth); provide the ability to send in filled-out forms and payments; update corporate information; request answers to specific questions; and so forth.
Examples and explanation:
B2G may also include e-procurement services, in which businesses learn about the purchasing needs of agencies and agencies request proposal responses. B2G may also support the idea of a virtual workplace in which a business and an agency could coordinate the work on a contracted project by sharing a common site to coordinate online meetings, review plans, and manage progress. B2G may also include the rental of online applications and databases designed especially for use by government agencies. According to the Gartner Group, B2G revenue is expected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2000 to $6.2 billion in 2005.
Synonyms:
e-government (see), online government.
2. An Internet site "Bound Together (B2G)" with the following Charter: "To foster a sense of community for people interested in power exchange and/or BDSM in and around the UK Midlands". (NB: BDSM = Bondage & Discipline / Domination & Submission / Sadism & Masochism.)
3. Online Community "b2g" - "better 2gether", "an emerging national movement of friends in Christ" in the USA.

B4

(chat) before

BCNU

(chat) be seeing you

BFN

• B4N

(chat) bye for now

BRB

(chat) be right back

BRICs

• BRIC
• briks
• brik

(acronym; n., adj.) The countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China viewed as a group of emerging economies with large potential markets.
Examples:
1) "Standard Life" believes that, by 2050, China will be the second largest market in the world, with 25 per cent of global capitalisation while India will have 10 per cent. The stock markets of the BRICs (Brazil Russia, India and China) could collectively be as large as the US, Japan, the UK and Germany put together. ("Time to be bullish over China stocks", Investment Adviser, February 9, 2004)
2) When investment gurus devise acronyms to describe up-and-coming markets, ordinary investors do well to beware. Remember the vogue for describing technology, media and telecom stocks as TMT? The acronym in vogue now is Brics, which means Brazil, Russia, India, and China. (Peter Temple, "How solid are the Brics?", Financial Times (London, England), February 7, 2004)
Comments:
The image underlying this acronym is the brick, meaning we're supposed to think of the nascent economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China as being akin to building blocks that, if the rosy forecasts come true, will form the foundation of the global economy in the decades to come.

BTDT

(chat) been there done that

BTW

(web, chat) by the way

BYKT

(web, chat) but you knew that

Baconian

[bay-KOH-nee-un]
One who believes that Francis Bacon wrote the works usually attributed to Shakespeare.
Example:
Baconians argue that the wide range of knowledge exhibited in Shakespeare's plays shows a level of learning that only Bacon could have had.
History:
Sir Francis Bacon was a man of many talents: he was a lawyer, a statesman, a philosopher, and a man of letters. He is remembered for the style and expression of his writing, for his power as a speaker in Parliament, and for his advocacy of what is today known as the "Baconian method" of arriving at scientific conclusions by careful examination of evidence and sorting of facts. Sir Francis Bacon is also considered, by some people, to be the true author of Shakespeare's works. The theory, which was first propounded in the mid-1800s, flourished from about 1880 to 1930 and is still subscribed to in certain circles today.

Bangalored

• Bangalore
• get bangalored
• Shanghaied
• Bangalore torpedo
• torpedo

A corporation, project, or employment, having been relocated to India and lost business or employment due to such a relocation (a business practice designed to save money that is arousing passions in some countries, especially Britain and the United States).
Examples:
1) After two months of SAP training CPQ UK's order management stuff was in the process of being Bangalored.
2) I am a software developer who is about to be "Bangalored."
3) It may not be entirely correct for US dictionaries to verbalise outsourcing to India as Bangalored! With India's capital city also attracting call centres ... the Americans could perhaps also talk in terms of their jobs being "Delhi-ted". ("Economic Times" (India), 24 July 2004)
History:
Bangalore - city and capital (since 1830) of Karnataka (formerly Mysore) state, southern India. It is the nation's seventh-largest city. Technologically, Bangalore is the Indian equivalent of Silicon Valley in the United States.
"Bangalored" has been discussed recently in the "Bangkok Post", the "Times of India" and other Asian newspapers. A search suggests it has been in use in the USA for about the past year but is only now beginning to appear in print. Bangalore is cited in particular because of its reputation in the USA as a high-tech city, that has benefited significantly from such outsourcing. One Web site is selling T-shirts with the slogan "Don't Get Bangalored" as a way of telling people about the issue. What's odd about the term, from the point of view of language, is that it's rare for a place name to become a verb; however, "Shanghaied" has been known since about 1870, at first in the sense of drugging and kidnapping a person to make up the crew numbers on a ship, but now more generally to be forced into doing something against one's will.
One of the possible sources of the word might be the Bangalore torpedo - a tube packed with explosive used by troops for blowing up wire entanglements. It got its name because it was invented in Bangalore. The term was first recorded in 1913 and common in both world wars, but now it is very rare among the public at large; on the other hand, the phrase was used in the recent film "Saving Private Ryan", which conceivably might have brought it to mind.


Be seeing you

• see you
• Be seeing smb.
• see smb.
• see
• be seeing
• seeing

1. To speak to smb. in person; I will speak to you in person.
2. (Internet, e-mail, SMS etc.) See you (later); I will be in contact with you at a later
time.

Beat around the bush

• Beat about the bush
• Beat around
• Beat about
• Beat
• around
• about
• bush

to avoid answering a question; to approach something carefully or in a roundabout way.
Example: Stop beating around the bush. Whom are you taking to the dance?
Etymology:
This expression goes all the way back to the 1500s when hunters hired people called beaters to drive small animals out of the bushes so the hunters could get a better shot at them. The problem for the beaters was that they might drive the birds or rabbits of foxes out too soon. They had to be careful not to drive the animals into the open before the hunters arrived. So the beaters might use their long sticks "around the bush" rather than directly on it. Today, the expression "to beat around the bush" means talking about things in a roundabout way without giving clear answers or coming to the point.

Beauty is only skin deep

• Beauty
• skin deep
• skin
• deep

People use this saying to mean that you can't judge a person's character by how he or she looks.
Example:
"That new girl sure is pretty," Kim said. "Yeah, but I wonder if she's nice, too," Carol said. "After all, beauty is only skin deep."
Beggars can't be choosers

• Beggars cannot be choosers
• A beggar can't be a chooser
• A beggar cannot be a chooser
• Beggar
• chooser

Needy people have to take whatever they can get and cannot be concerned about
the quality if they cannot afford to buy it for themselves. This saying means that when you are in a weak or disadvantaged position, you shouldn't be picky about the help that may be offered - even if it isn't exactly the sort of help you want.
Example:
Beggars can't be choosers. If you don't have money to go out for pizza, you'll have to eat in the cafeteria.
Etymology:
This proverb has been around since the mid-1500s. It means that people who need
something but who have little or no control over their situations can't choose what they
get. They have to accept what is offered.

Bennifer
a blended noun describing the couple of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.
Etymology:
Ben Affleck - actor and co-writer of "Good Will Hunting" etc. Affleck became engaged to singer (who wore the sexy dress to the Grammys) and actress Jennifer Lopez in 2002.

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts

• Beware
• Greeks
• bearing
• gifts
• Greek
• gift

be suspicious of presents from certain people who are just looking for something from you; be on guard against treachery in the disguise of a gift.
Example:
Natasha is just giving you that CD because she wants one of your puppies. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
Etymology:
The great ancient Roman writer Virgil used a similar sentence in his famous story of the Trojan War, the "Aeneid". For ten years the Greek army tried in vain to conquer the city of Troy. Finally the Greeks pulled a rotten (but clever) trick on the Trojans. They pretended to sail back to Greece and left behind a huge wooden horse as a "gift". The Trojans brought the horse inside their city, but many Greek soldiers were hidden in the hollow belly of the horse. They came out at night, defeated the Trojans, and conquered the city.

Big Apple

• the Big Apple
• Big
• Apple

1. A jerky American dance that was popular in the 1940s.
2. To do the jitterbug.
3. New York City; New York.
Example:
Guess what! My friend and I are going to live in The Big Apple!
Etymology:
The term "Big Apple" was adopted in 1971 as the theme of an official advertising campaign aimed at luring tourists back to New York City. The ad campaign aimed to recast New York, then generally held to be noisy, dirty and dangerous, in a more positive light by stressing the city's excitement and glamor. Whee! Just watch your wallet, folks.
As to the origin of the term "Big Apple" itself, the prevailing wisdom for many years was that it was used in the 1930's, by jazz musicians in particular, but that no one knew where it first arose or how it became a synonym for New York City. Fortunately, Professor Gerald Cohen of the University of Missouri did some serious digging and uncovered use of the term "Big Apple" in the 1920's by a newspaper writer named John FitzGerald, who wrote a horse-racing column (called "Around the Big Apple") for the "New York Morning Telegraph". FitzGerald's use of the term predated the jazzmen's "Big Apple" by about a decade.
It was still unclear where FitzGerald got "Big Apple," however, until Barry Popik, a remarkably persistent New York City slang historian, took up the search. Popik discovered that in 1924 FitzGerald had written that he first heard the term from stable hands in New Orleans, who referred to New York racetracks as "the Big Apple" - the goal of every trainer and jockey in the horse racing world.
Armed with the true story of "Big Apple" (and awesome determination), Popik spent the next four years trying to convince the New York City Government to officially recognize FitzGerald as the popularizer of "Big Apple." He finally succeeded, and the corner of West 54th Street and Broadway, where John FitzGerald lived for nearly 30 years, is now officially known as "Big Apple Corner."

Bluesnarfing

• Blue snarfing
• Bluesnarf
• Blue snarf
• Blue
• snarfing
• snarf

This term refers to a technique by which an intruder can bypass the security on some Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones to download the contents of address books and other personal data.
Example:
Bluesnarfing, the latest discovery for the wireless-data standard, allows data, such as telephone numbers and diary entries, stored in a vulnerable device to be stolen by the attacker. (Munir Kotadia, "ZDNet UK", February 09, 2004)
Etymology:
"Blue" (from the name of the Bluetooth technology) + "snarf" (probably from "sn(ort)" + "(sc)arf ") + "-ing".
The major manufacturers have claimed this is a "far-fetched" scenario, but are reported now to acknowledge that some models are at risk. The term was coined by Adam Laurie of the security firm AL Digital, who wrote a paper about the problem (February, 2004).

Bluetooth

This is a specification, developed by a consortium that includes IBM, Ericsson, Nokia, Intel, and Toshiba, for a radio system that allows electronic devices to communicate with each other over short distances without connecting cables. Some 1,200 companies pledged to support this new format when it was first announced, including giants like Microsoft.
Example:
Any Bluetooth device can talk to any other, no matter what brand name is on the label or what software forms their operating systems. ("Arizona Republic", Nov. 1999)
Etymology:
The consortium named it after the tenth-century Danish king Harald Bluetooth, who united warring factions.

Bob's your uncle

• Bobs your uncle
• all is bob
• bob's
• Bob
• uncle

1. Either describing a simple task or used when a task is completed.
2. There you have it; it's all right; a catch phrase expressing satisfactory completion.
Examples:
1) Make sure you have primed and undercoated the wood. Then apply the gloss paint and Bob's your uncle! The wood will stay protected and look good for another couple of years.
2) You put the plug in here, press that switch, and Bob's your uncle!
Etymology, history:
This is a catchphrase which seemed to arise out of nowhere and yet has had a long period of fashion and is still going strong. It's known mainly in Britain and Commonwealth countries.
1) The most attractive theory-albeit suspiciously neat-is that it derives from a prolonged act of political nepotism. The Victorian prime minister, Lord Salisbury (family name Robert Cecil) appointed his rather less than popular nephew Arthur Balfour to a succession of posts. The most controversial, in 1887, was chief secretary of Ireland, a post for which Balfour - despite his intellectual gifts - was considered unsuitable. The Dictionary of National Biography says: "The country saw with something like stupefaction the appointment of the young dilettante to what was at the moment perhaps the most important, certainly the most anxious office in the administration". As the story goes, the consensus among the irreverent in Britain was that to have Bob as your uncle was a guarantee of success, hence the expression. Since the very word "nepotism" derives from the Italian word for "nephew" (from the practice of Italian popes giving preferment to nephews, a euphemism for their bastard sons), the association here seems more than apt. Actually, Balfour did rather well in the job, confounding his critics and earning the bitter nickname Bloody Balfour from the Irish, which must have quietened the accusations of undue favouritism more than a little (he also rose to be Prime Minister from 1902-5). There is another big problem: the phrase isn't recorded until 1937, in Eric Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Mr Partridge suggested it had been in use since the 1890s, but nobody has found an example in print. This is surprising.
2) A rather more probable, but less exciting, theory has it that it derives from the slang phrase "all is bob", meaning that everything is safe, pleasant or satisfactory. This dates back to the 17th-18th cent. (it's in Captain Francis Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue of 1785). There have been several other slang expressions containing "bob", some associated with thievery or gambling, and from the 18th century on it was also a common generic name for somebody you didn't know. Any or all of these might have contributed to its genesis.

Boxing Day

• Boxing
• Day
• St Stephen's Day
• St. Stephen's Day
• St Stephen
• St. Stephen
• Stephen

In Britain Boxing Day is the day after Christmas Day, 26 December, a public holiday that is more correctly called St Stephen's Day.
Example:
Strictly, the public holiday is the first working day after Christmas Day, but the name Boxing Day is always reserved for the 26th.
History:
We have to go back to the early 17th c. to find the basis for the name. The term "Christmas box" appeared about then for an earthenware box, something like a piggy bank, which apprentices took around at Christmas to collect money. When it was full, or the round complete, the box was broken and the money distributed among the company. By the 18th c., Christmas box had become a figurative term for any seasonal gratuity: "A present or gratuity given at Christmas: in Great Britain, usually confined to gratuities given to those who are supposed to have a vague claim upon the donor for services rendered to him as one of the general public by whom they are employed and paid, or as a customer of their legal employer; the undefined theory being that as they have done offices for this person, for which he has not directly paid them, some direct acknowledgement is becoming at Christmas. These gratuities have traditionally been asked from householders by letter-carriers, policemen, lamp-lighters, scavengers, butchers' and bakers' boys, tradesmen's carmen, etc, and from tradesmen by the servants of households that deal with them, etc. They are thus practically identical with the Christmas-box collected by apprentices from their masters' customers, except that the name is now given to the individual donation; and hence, vulgarly and in dialect use it is often equivalent to "Christmas present"." ("Oxford English Dictionary", 1st ed.)
Some time after the beginning of the 19th c., the word "box" of "Christmas box" shifted to refer to the day after Christmas day, on which such gratuities were often requested and on which the original Christmas box was taken round. The first recorded use of Boxing Day for the 26th December is in 1833. By 1853 at the latest it had become a scourge that justified Murray's later acerbic comments, at least to judge from these comments by Charles Manby Smith in his "Curiosities of London Life": "We can hardly close these desultory sketches of Christmas-time without some brief allusion to the day after Christmas, which, through every nook and cranny of the great Babel, is known and recognised as Boxing Day - the day consecrated to baksheesh, when nobody, it would almost seem, is too proud to beg, and when everybody who does not beg is expected to play the almoner. "Tie up the knocker - say you're sick, you are dead," is the best advice perhaps that could be given in such cases to any man who has a street-door and a knocker upon it".
This custom has now died out, though solicitations for Christmas tips continue to some extent, especially from the deliverers of newspapers. Instead, on Boxing Day people now rush to the first post-Christmas sales.

Britalian

said to describe the reinterpretation of classic Italian dishes like pizza and pasta for blander British palates.
Example:
A lasagne in Britian is more "Britalian" than "Italian".
History:
A blend of "British" and "Italian", this pops up from time to time to describe in particular the reinterpretation of classic Italian dishes like pizza and pasta for blander British palates. At the beginning of September 2004 it was the turn of Antonio Carluccio, who ran a restaurant chain in London, to disparage supermarket offerings of Italian foodstuffs as "a huge crime". His case was helped by a quote in the "Guardian" from the executive chef of Sainsburys, who said the firm tried to make their products "a bit authentic".

British Summer Time

• Summer Time
• BST
• Summer
• Time
• British

The time used in the UK from late March to late October, that is one hour later than Greenwich Mean Time and 3 hours later than Moscow time.

Brobdingnagian

• Brobdingnag

[brob-ding-NAG-ee-un]
Of extraordinary size; gigantic; enormous; marked by tremendous size.
Examples:
1) Our little dog was frightened by the Brobdingnagian proportions of the statues in the park.
2) The venture capital business has a size problem. A monstrous, staggering, stupefying one. Brobdingnagian even. (Russ Mitchell, "Too Much Ventured Nothing Gained", Fortune, November 11, 2002)
3) Any savvy dealer . . . will try to talk you up to one of the latest behemoths, which have bloated to such Brobdingnagian dimensions as to have entered the realm of the absurd. (Jack Hitt, "The Hidden Life of SUVs", Mother Jones, July/August 1999)
Etymology:
In Jonathan Swift's novel "Gulliver's Travels", Brobdingnag is the name of a land that is populated by a race of human giants "as tall as an ordinary spire steeple." In Gulliver's first close-up encounter with the giants, he is attempting to get past a stile of which every step is six feet high, when a group of field-workers approach with strides ten yards long and reaping hooks as large as six scythes. Their voices he at first mistakes for thunder. Swift's book fired the imagination of the public and within two years of the 1726 publication of the story, people had begun using "Brobdingnagian" to refer to anything of unusually large size. (Swift himself had used "Brobdingnagian" as a noun to refer to the inhabitants of Brobdingnag.)

Bwd

(chat) backward

Byzantine

[BIZ-un-teen]
1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of the ancient city of Byzantium or the Eastern Roman Empire.
2. Of or relating to the Eastern Orthodox Church.
3. (Often not capitalized) Intricately involved and often devious.
Example:
Rosa's novels vividly depict a Byzantine world of scheming and intrigue.
Etymology:
Today, the city that lies on the Bosporus Strait in Turkey is named Istanbul, but it was once known as Constantinople (a name given to it when it became capital of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire), and in ancient times, it was called Byzantium. Its history is exotic - filled with mystics, wars, and political infighting - and the word Byzantine (from Late Latin "Byzantinus," for "native of Byzantium") became synonymous with anything characteristic of the city or empire, from architecture to intrigue. The figurative sense of labyrinthine deviousness first appeared in the late 1930s. It was popularized by its frequent use in reference to the Soviet Union, whose secrecy and despotism were equated by Westerners with what went on in the old Byzantine Empire.