e-government

• E-government
• E-Government
• e-Gov
• egov
• EGOV
• E-GOV
• Egovernment
• eGovernment
• government
• egovernment
• EGovernment
• electronic government
• online government
• online
• e-Services
• e-Service
• Services
• e-
• E-
• Service
• e-commerce
• commerce
• electronic
• B2G

Also:
eGovernment, egovernment, Egovernment, E-government, E-Government, e-Gov, egov, EGOV, E-GOV, EGovernment
1. "B2G" (see); the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve the activities of public sector organisations:
a) the delivery of public services, where there is an online or Internet based aspect to
the delivery of the services;
b) the conduct of government business where the activities of those involved in the process of government itself (such as legislators and the legislative process) where some electronic or online aspect is under consideration;
c) voting where some technological aspect is under consideration.
2. Non-Internet aspects of eGovernment:
a) Telephone and telecommunications issues in a government context, including:
- the provision of government services by telephone (such as in call centers),
- the use of fax in the provision of government services and the conduct of government business,
- the use of mobile phone (and PDA) based communications technology (such as SMS text messaging and MMS as well as Bluetooth etc.) in the provision of government services and the conduct of government business;
b) General Government IT, which is now starting to be reclassified as eGovernment, in many cases because it is becoming ever more difficult to disentangle "internal" (i.e., non-'citizen-facing') IT resources and projects (which have hitherto mostly not been seen as part of eGovernment) from "external" (and thus mostly already seen as eGovernment) service provision. (This reclassification is by no means universal and is often controversial.);
c) Surveillance systems, CCTV, tracking systems, RFID, biometric identification, road traffic management and regulatory enforcement;
d) Identity cards, smart cards;
e) Polling station technology (where non-online "e-voting" is being considered);
f) TV and radio-based delivery of government services (this often has a "crossover" with the Internet, but also includes many non-Internet based aspects and projects such as Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), Digital TV and High Definition TV (HDTV) provision).
Non-Website-specific aspects of Internet-based eGovernment concerns:
- the use of Email in the provision of government services and the conduct of government business,
- the use of "online community" facilities, such as message boards, newsgroups and discussion lists
- the use of "real-time" Internet facilities, such as "online chat" and "instant messenger" technologies.
Example:
Implementation of E-Government is important in making Government more responsive and cost-effective.
Etymology:
The term (in all its uses) is generally agreed to derive from "electronic government" which introduces the notion and practicalities of electronic technology into the various dimensions and ramifications of government. Online government services are sometimes called e-Services, often a label which is considered to be a distinction from e-commerce, but in some cases e-services and e-commerce are practically interchangeable terms.
Synonym:
online government


earwig
[EER-wig]
To annoy or attempt to influence by private talk.
Example:
[He] earwigged the big man at the Labour conference, asking him to take the lead in banning tobacco advertising from newspapers. (Stephen Cook, "The Guardian" [London], October 1986)
History, more meanings:
Earwigs are small insects that were once thought to crawl into the ears of sleeping people. This isn't true - earwigs prefer moist, dark places under leaves and rocks to human ears - but the superstition led people to name the insect "earwicga," Old English for "ear insect." Over time, people connected the idea of having an insect in one's ear to situations that involve whispering or speaking privately into someone's ear. The noun "earwig" came to also mean "a whispering busybody" (though this sense is now considered archaic), and the verb "earwig" evolved to refer to the acts of such meddlers.


easy as pie

• as easy as a pie
• as easy as pie
• easy as a pie
• piece of cake
• piece
• cake
• easy
• pie
• a piece of cake
• as easy as falling off a log
• as easy as rolling off a log
• easy as falling off a log
• easy as rolling off a log

Very simple; extremely easy; not difficult; requiring practically no effort.
Examples:
1) The job was easy as pie, and we finished up an hour early. 2) You want Mom to give you fifty dollars? Easy as pie. Just tell her you need to buy some new shoes.
3) That math problem is easy as pie. I'll show you how to do it.
4) I thought that getting my teacher to raise my grade would be as easy as pie.
Etymology:
There are two similar modern idioms that mean extremely easy: "easy as pie" and "piece of cake". Why should they both relate to baked desserts? 'Pie' is a tasty, sweet dish that is easy to make, and even easier to eat.
Synonyms: (a) piece of cake; (as) easy as falling off a log; (as) easy as rolling off a log


easy come, easy go

• easy come easy go
• easy come
• easy go
• easy
• come
• go

Something that is easily obtained, as money, can be lost or parted with just as easily.
Example:
As Ming was spending his lottery money, he said, "Easy come, easy go."
History:
This saying goes all the way back to the famous "Canterbury Tales", written in the 1300s. The author, Geoffrey Chaucer, was saying that if you get something quickly and easily without really working hard for it, you'll probably spend or lose it just as quickly.

eat crow

• Eat
• crow
• eat one's words
• eat humble pie
• eat a humble pie
• take it back
• take
• back
• word
• humble pie
• humble
• pie

To be forced to do something very disagreeable; to acknowledge a mistake or defeat; to admit you were wrong, take back what you said.
Synonyms: eat one's words; eat humble pie; take it back.
Examples:
1) I made Jon admit that he was wrong, and now he has to eat crow.
2) The racing car driver bragged that his was the fastest, best-built car ever to run the
Indianapolis 500. He said confidently that he was guaranteed to win the race. But he had to eat crow when his car got two flat tires and lost the race.
Etymology:
This is a saying from the War of 1812 when an American officer was forced to eat a dead crow. People who have actually eaten a crow say that it tastes horrible. To be forced to "eat crow" is humbling and humiliating, like having to admit that you've done or said something terribly wrong. If you "eat crow", you are taking back something that you once said.


eat humble pie

• eat
• humble pie
• humble
• pie
• eat crow
• crow

To be apologetic or suffer humiliation; to act humble or admit guilt.
Examples:
1) Carlos bragged that he was the fastest runner in the school, but he had to eat humble pie when he came in last at the time trials.
2) When he finds out how wrong he's been, he'll eat humble pie.
Etymology, synonyms:
"Humble" means "modest, lowly, meek". Humble pie, which originally had no relation to being humble, was a meat pie made of animal intestines. The expression "eat humble pie" came to stand for the unpleasant situation in which you are forced to admit your mistakes or weaknesses.
This expression is very similar to "eat crow", but it comes from medieval times, when there really was a pie called an "umble", or "numble" pie. Umbles were the heart, liver, and entrails of deer and other animals, and only servants ate a pie made out of animals' guts. "Umble pie" was changed to "humble". By the early 1800s the expression "eat humble pie" meant profusely apologizing for a humiliating error.

eat lead

• eat
• lead

To be shot at with a gun; as an exclamation, the phrase is directed toward the intended target.
Example:
"Eat lead!" yelled the bank robber as he fired his gun at the police outside.
Etymology:
A bullet is made of lead so when a gun is fired at someone, the intended target might be 'eating lead' - that is, bringing the bullet inside their body.


eat my dust

• eat
• dust

A phrase meaning "I'm winning!", usually used to taunt someone who is losing a race or any kind of competition.
Example: Eat my dust, boy! Catch me if you can!
Etymology: In a car race, the lead car will produce a cloud of dirt that all the other cars will have to drive through; and the drivers of those cars will have to 'eat' (or breathe) that cloud of 'dust' (or dirt).

eat one's hat

• eat my hat
• eat your hat
• eat
• hat

A statement made when you are positive that something will happen.
Example:
If we don't win this basketball game by at least twenty points, I'll eat my hat.
Etymology:
Many great writers, including Charles Dickens, have used this expression. The idea behind it is that you are 100 percent certain that some event will take your place (or not take place). If the opposite of what you publicly predict unexpectedly happens, you will do something ridiculous like eat your hat. Since you expect your prediction to come true, you feel safe in promising that you'll do something stupid if it doesn't.

eat one's words

• eat your words
• eat
• words
• word
• eat crow
• eat humble pie
• take it back
• crow
• humble
• pie
• humble pie
• take
• back
• take smth. back

To have to take back what you said; to admit humbly that you were wrong; to regret what you said.
Examples:
1) He predicted that I'd fail biology, but I got a D. Now he'll have to eat his words.
2) He told me the answer, and I had to eat my words. I was wrong.
Synonyms:
eat crow, eat humble pie; take it back.
Etymology:
Words come out of your mouth. Food goes in to be eaten. If you're said something that turns out to be not true, maybe you wish you could take back those wrong words, put them back into your mouth, and eat them. A similar expression is "eat crow" etc. (see "Synonyms"), but "eat your words" makes more sense.
So, remember to keep your words soft and sweet, you never know when you may have to eat them.


eat out of one's hand

• eat out of your hand
• eat out of
• hand
• eat
• out of

To trust someone fully; believe or obey someone without question; to be very cooperative and submissive; to believe and obey someone without question.
Examples:
1) The governor has the reporters eating out of his hand. Helen is so pretty and popular that all the boys eat out of her hand.
2) That kid will be eating out of my hand when I show him my new video game.
Etymology:
This expression, from the 20th century, describes what a tame or trusting animal will do if you treat it right. The person who created this idiom applied the same idea to human beings who trust fully and obey without question. People don't actually eat out of someone's hand, but they do behave like obedient animals sometimes.

eat your heart out

• eat one's heart out
• eat the heart out
• eat out
• eat
• heart

1. To feel extremely unhappy about a hopeless situation; to make yourself sick with grief and worry.
2. To envy my prize, wish that you had one.
Examples:
1) After Elena lost the plane tickets, she ate her heart out over the mistake.
2) When Kurt won the Porsche, he said, "Eat your heart out, guys."
3) When Marika got the lead in the school play, Fiona ate her heart out because she wanted it.
Etymology:
This expression goes all the way back to the ancient Greek. The poet Homer used it in his famous epic poem the "Odyssey". A person's heart has always been considered the center of his or her emotions. For instance, a person can be "brokenhearted", or have a "heart of gold." This idiom is saying that if you become thin and weak from sorrow, if your misery is making you sick, then it's as if you are figuratively eating your heart out. The same happens if someone is extremely jealous.


eats

• eat
• grub

Food, particularly simple, inexpensive food.
Example:
I'm hungry. Let's get some eats!
Etymology:
One eats food. This slang term turns a verb into a noun. Synonym: grub


eavesdropper

• eavesdrop

One who listens in on another person's private conversation.
Etymology:
It began in Anglo-Saxon England. The word came from Old Norse and originally referred to the area around a building that was liable to be wetted by water flowing off the projecting eaves of the roof above (gutters hadnt been invented yet). There was an ancient custom that stopped a landowner from building within two feet of his boundary, for fear that the water cascading off the eaves might cause problems for his neighbour.
By the end of the medieval period, the word eavesdropper had been invented for somebody who stood within this strip of ground, under the projecting eaves and close to the walls of a building, in order to listen surreptitiously to the conversations within. The verb to eavesdrop in the same sense came along about a century later.


ebullient
[ih-BUL-yuhnt]
1. Overflowing with enthusiasm or excitement; high-spirited, exuberant.
2. Boiling up or over; agitated.
Examples:
1) The glasses he wore for astigmatism gave him a deceptively clerkish appearance, for he had an ebullient, gregarious personality, a hot temper, and an outsized imagination. (Jon Lee Anderson, "Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life")
2) He was no longer an ebullient, energetic adolescent. (Linda Simon, "Genuine Reality: A Life of William James")
3) Sometimes he would come back from the Drenchery Club holding on to the walls till he got to my office, where he'd be jolly and ebullient. At other times, he'd return morose. (Harriet Wasserman, "Handsome Is: Adventures with Saul Bellow")
4) Students found Mr. Brennan's science class to be a challenge, but his ebullient style made his lectures very entertaining.
Etymology, related words:
"Ebullient" comes from Latin "ebullire" ("to bubble up"), from "e-" ("out of, from") + "bullire" ("to bubble, to boil"); the stem "bullire" is an ancestor of our word "boil" and derives from "bulla," the Latin word for "bubble".
Someone who is ebullient is bubbling over with enthusiasm. In its earliest known uses in English in the late 1500s, "ebullient" was used in the sense of "boiling" or "bubbling" that might have described a pot simmering on the stove. Only later did the word's meaning broaden to encompass emotional agitation in addition to the tempestuous roiling of a boiling liquid.


echelon
1. A steplike arrangement.
2. A body of troops arranged in a line. (classification: military, armed forces, armed services, military machine, war machine)
3. a) One of a series of levels or grades in an organization or field of activity; b) the individuals at such a level.
Example:
Capturing her third straight title finally convinced critics that Janice belonged in the upper echelon of tennis players.
4. A diffraction grating consisting of a pile of plates of equal thickness arranged stepwise with a constant offset. Synonyms: diffraction grating, grating.
Etymology:
"Echelon" is a useful word for anyone who is climbing the ladder of success. It traces back to "scala", a Late Latin word meaning "ladder" that was the ancestor of the Old French "eschelon", meaning "rung of a ladder". Over time, the French word (which is "echelon" in Modern French) came to mean "step", "grade", or "level". When it was first borrowed into English in the 18th century, "echelon" referred specifically to a steplike arrangement of troops, but it now usually refers to a level or category within an organization or group of people.


echo bubble

• echo bubble
• echo
• bubble
• tech-driven bubble
• tech-driven
• tech
• driven
• B-wave
• wave
• bubble junior
• junior

A sharp but temporary rise in stock prices that follows the collapse of a recent stock market bubble.
Examples:
1) Given where tech stocks are at the moment - wheezing at a red light after a 17-month romp - where will they go from here? Will the Nasdaq hitch up its socks and dash to 2500 or maybe 3000? Or is the "echo bubble" starting to leak? And will this pull Nasdaq down to 1500? (Rich Karlgaard, "Tech Stocks at a Crossroads", Forbes, March 1, 2004)
2) After a spectacular rise in the S&P 500, signs of a major market top are rapidly falling into place. While many have heralded the rally as the emergence of a new bull market, history indicates that such large reactions are part and parcel of secular bear markets. Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith coined the term "echo bubble" to describe such typical post-bubble activity. When a market bubble bursts, it is generally followed by a secondary bubble, an "echo bubble" - during which market psychology matches the extremes of sentiment displayed in the first bubble. Typically, markets do not find a genuine bear market bottom until after the echo bubble pops. (Mark M. Rostenko, "Look out below!", CBS MarketWatch, March 18, 2004)
Etymology:
We've been using the word "bubble" to refer to a fragile or insubstantial financial scheme or situation since 1721 when Jonathan Swift, commenting on the South Sea Company's disastrous scheme to assume England's national debt, penned the following lines in his poem, "The Bubble": The Nation too late will find, Computing all their Cost and Trouble, Directors' Promises but Wind, South Sea at best a mighty Bubble. The new phrase "echo bubble" is being whispered throughout the financial community these days as people wonder whether the stock market gains of the past 18 months signal a fresh bull market or presage another spectacular collapse that will be the mirror of the late 90's tech-driven bubble.
Synonyms:
tech-driven bubble; B-wave (1987) or a bubble junior (2003)


eclectic
[ih-KLEK-tik]
1. Selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or styles.
2. Composed of elements drawn from various sources; heterogeneous.
Example:
Old-school musicians joined with today's rising stars to showcase an eclectic mix of music for charity.
Etymology, more examples:
"Eclectic" comes from a Greek verb meaning "to select" and was originally applied to ancient philosophers who were not committed to any single system of philosophy; instead, these philosophers selected whichever doctrines pleased them from every school of thought. Later, the word's use broadened to cover other selective natures. "Hard by, the central slab is thick with books / Diverse, but which the true eclectic mind / Knows how to group, and gather out of each / Their frequent wisdoms..." In this 19th century example from a poem by Arthur Joseph Munby, for example, the word is applied to literature lovers who cull selective works from libraries.


ecstatic
of, relating to, or marked by a state of extreme emotional excitement or rapturous delight
Example:
Carla was ecstatic when she received an acceptance letter from the college she had set her heart on attending.
Etymology:
"Ecstatic" has been used in our language since at least 1590, and the noun "ecstasy" is even older, dating from the 1300s. Both derive from the Greek verb "existanai" ("to put out of place"), which was used in a Greek phrase meaning "to drive someone out of his or her mind". That seems an appropriate history for words that can describe someone who is nearly out of his or her mind with intense emotion. In early use, "ecstatic" was sometimes linked to mystic trances, out-of-body experiences, and temporary madness. Today, however, it most typically implies a state of enthusiastic excitement or intense happiness.


edacious

• voracious
• insatiable
• ravenous

[ih-DAY-shuss]
1. Given to eating; having a huge appetite.
2. Excessively eager.
Synonyms: insatiable; ravenous.
Examples:
1) Fiona, an edacious reader, completed a book every few days and usually had begun her next one before she had finished her last.
2) Swallowed in the depths of edacious Time. (Thomas Carlyle)
3) Something that... will dismay edacious lips. ("The late showman," Independent, August 21, 1999)
4) Our... high-toned irritability, edacious appetites, and pampered constitutions. (Isaac Taylor, Natural History of Enthusiasm)
History, more synonyms:
"Tempus edax rerum." That wise Latin line by the Roman poet Ovid translates as "Time, the devourer of all things." Ovid's correlation between rapaciousness and time is appropriate to a discussion of "edacious." That English word is a descendant of "edax, edac-" ("gluttonous, consuming"), which is in turn a derivative of the Latin verb "edere," meaning "to eat." In its earliest known English uses, "edacious" meant "of or relating to eating." It later came to be used generally as a synonym of "voracious," and it has often been used specifically in contexts referring to time. That's how Scottish essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle used it when he referred to events "swallowed in the depths of edacious time."


eddy
[ED-ee]
1. A current of air or water running in a direction contrary to the main current, or moving in a circular direction.
Synonym: a whirlpool.
2. A tendency or current (as of opinion or history) contrary to or separate from a main current.
3. To move in an eddy or as if in an eddy; to move in a circle.
4. To cause to move in an eddy or as if in an eddy.
Examples:
1) Many inanimate systems have lifelike qualities - flickering flames, snowflakes, cloud patterns, swirling eddies in a river. (Paul Davies, "The Fifth Miracle")
2) Egypt, like many countries, was caught up in the eddies of the Great Depression, which overtook Europe and America and which came in Egypt just as the new graduates of the expanded schooling were entering the workforce, looking for the professional opportunities their education had promised. (Leila Ahmed, "A Border Passage")
3) The indifferent river swirls on, eddying past small promontories where grass peeks through the snow. (Roger Cohen, "Hearts Grown Brutal")
4) The fragrant water is not completely still but, stirred perhaps by his own entry, seems to eddy around him as if he were being bathed in a rippling brook fed by hot springs, one that cleanses itself even as it cleanses him. (Robert Coover, "Ghost Town")
Etymology:
"Eddy" is from Middle English "ydy", probably of Scandinavian origin.


edify
[ED-uh-fye]
1. To instruct and improve especially in moral and religious knowledge.
2. To enlighten, inform.
Example:
Jesse told the congregation, "The inspiring sermons of our new minister will edify you and propel you to greater spirituality."
Etymology, more meanings:
The Latin noun "aedes," meaning "house" or "temple," is the root of "aedificare," a verb meaning "to erect a house." Generations of speakers built on that meaning, and by the Late Latin period, the verb had gained the figurative sense of "to instruct or improve spiritually." The word eventually passed through Anglo-French before Middle English speakers adopted it as "edify" during the 14th century. Two of its early meanings, "to build" and "to establish," are now considered archaic.


efface
[ih-FAYS]
1. To cause to disappear by rubbing out, striking out, etc.; to erase; to render illegible or indiscernible.
2. To destroy, as a mental impression; to wipe out; to eliminate completely.
3. To make (oneself) inconspicuous.
Examples:
1) Her fingerprints were gone, she thought. Effaced. (Rosellen Brown, "Half a Heart")
2) Death, so omnipresent in the past that it was familiar, would be effaced, would disappear. (Philippe Aries, "Western Attitudes Toward Death from the Middle Ages to the Present")
3) Conversely, as a reaction, one may note in passing that more serious and dedicated writers choose to keep a low profile and to disguise or to efface themselves as much as possible. (Sergio Perosa, "The Heirs of Calvino and the Eco Effect," New York Times, August 16, 1987)
Etymology:
"Efface" comes from French "effacer", from Old French "esfacier", from "es-" ("out", from Latin "ex-") + "face" (from Latin "facies").


efficacious

• Effective
• efficient
• effectual

[ef-ih-KAY-shuhs]
Having the power to produce a desired effect; possessing the quality of being effective; producing, or capable of producing, the effect intended; as, an efficacious law.
Examples:
1) Lawyers make claims not because they believe them to be true, but because they believe them to be legally efficacious. (Paul F. Campos, "Jurismania")
2) Henri IV wrote to his son's nurse, Madame de Montglat, in 1607 insisting 'it is my wish and my command that he be whipped every time he is stubborn or misbehaves, knowing full well from personal experience that nothing in the world is as efficacious'. (Katharine MacDonogh, "Reigning Cats and Dogs: A History of Pets at Court")
3) Since the Renaissance Plagued by rats, the citizens of Hamelin desperately seek some efficacious method of pest control. (Francine Prose, review of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin, as retold by Robert Holden", New York Times, August 16, 1998)
Etymology, synonyms, more examples:
"Efficacious" is from Latin "efficax", "-acis", from "efficere" ("to effect, to bring about"), from "ex-" ("out") + "facere" ("to do or make").
"Effective," "efficient," and "effectual" are synonyms of "efficacious," but each of these words has a slightly different connotation. "Efficacious" suggests possession of a special quality or virtue that makes it possible to achieve a result ("a detergent that is efficacious in removing grease"). "Effective" stresses the power to produce or the actual production of a particular effect ("an effective rebuttal"), while "effectual" suggests the accomplishment of a desired result, especially as viewed after the fact ("measures taken to reduce underage drinking have proved effectual"). "Efficient" implies an acting or potential for acting that avoids loss or waste of energy ("an efficient small car").


effrontery

• insolence

[ih-FRUN-tuh-ree]
Insulting presumptuousness; shameless boldness.
Synonym: insolence.
Examples:
1) Who would have the effrontery to treat the chairman in this way? (Tom King, "The Operator")
2) Passionately she sang of Yoshitsune, her love and yearning for him, and her joy that he had successfully managed to evade his evil half-brother Yoritomo. Yoritomo was torn between rage at such effrontery and pleasure at the exquisite beauty of her voice. (Lesley Downer, "Women of the Pleasure Quarters")
Etymology:
"Effrontery" is from French "effronterie", ultimately from Late Latin "effrons, effront-" - "shameless," literally "without forehead" (to blush with), from Latin "ex-" ("out of") + "frons, front-" ("forehead").


effulgence

• effulgent
• fulgent
• Refulgence
• brilliance

[i-FUL-juhn(t)s]
The state of being bright and radiant; splendor; brilliance.
Examples:
1) The purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues. (Congressman Henry Lee's Eulogy for George Washington, 1799)
2) The setting sun as usual shed a melancholy effulgence on the ruddy towers of the Alhambra. (Washington Irving, "The Alhambra")
3) Nice gave him a different light from Paris - a high, constant effulgence with little gray in it, flooding broadly across sea, city and hills, producing luminous shadows and clear tonal structures. (Robert Hughes, "Inventing A Sensory Utopia," Time, November 17, 1986)
4) Though autumn's effulgence has passed in the north, down south the Chinese tallow trees have just begun a respectable display of their own.
History, related words, synonyms:
English speakers first took a shine to "effulgence" in the late 1600s, but it has older relatives in the English language. It derives from Latin "ex-" ("out of, from") and the Latin verb "fulgere," which means "to shine," a word that is also the root of "fulgent," a synonym of "radiant" that English speakers have used since the 15th century. The adjective form of the word is effulgent. "Refulgence" also appeared in the 1600s - but in the earlier half - and has a close meaning to "effulgence." It means "a radiant or resplendent quality or state" and, like "effulgence," is synonymous with "brilliance."