This has to be one of the most annoying phrases ever. Technically, zeros and ones cannot throw anything. Who made up throwing and catching, anyway? There has to be a better set of words to describe exceptions within frameworks and platforms. I believe this phrase should never be used unless discussing actual, real-life actions with actual, real-life balls. In fact, I find this phrase so intolerable that when someone uses it in my office, I feel the need to leave my desk for a short break. Like this morning, bleh!
I looked it up, and the closest I could get (with the OED, natch) was definition #32b: "To put deftly into a particular form or shape; to express in a specified form (in speech or writing); to convert or change into some other form; to turn or translate into another language."
But the most recent usage they posted is from 1893! Soc. Eng. Introd. 30 Cædmon..throws Scripture into metrical paraphrase." And Javascript and other computer languages were not around then. So sheesh, why not something like "disengage" or "commix"? They sound a lot geekier than a sports term...
3 comments:
Yikes, I've never heard it before!
Yeah, it's programmer-speak. But sometimes people use geek-speak to try and be exclusive, which irritates me. If you have to _try_ to sound smart, that's a problem.
Great blog yoou have
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