BUZZWORD COMPLIANT DICTIONARY
F

F2F: With e-mail, webinars and teleconferencing on the rise, it was only a matter of time before we needed an abbreviated way to make "face-to-face" meetings sound unique.
Nominated by Mike Brehm

FC: Anything related to the magazine "Fast Company." Also, a reference to those who work in e-corporations with their faces to their computers screens and their backs foolishly to the door.
Nominated by Anna Lee

fabless: Techie-speak for a semiconductor company that designs and markets computer chips, but outsources the manufacturing. A fab company, on the other hand, has the facilities to "fabricate" its own chips.
Nominated by Max Matthews

face guy: A chief executive hired primarily because he looks like an "executive" and sounds good on TV.
Nominated by James Steen

face time: Ambitious workers used to fight for face time with the boss. Salespeople wanted more face time with customers. In these days of telecommuting, it takes on an expanded meaning. It’s the time that telecommuters physically meet the co-workers they normally interact with through e-mail, chat or video-conferencing. "I'll be in the office Thursday so we can do a  little face time."
Nominated by Dave Fisher

facipulation: To use facilitation to manipulate a desired outcome. Basically it's what consultants do. They get employees to do what their company wants them to do, while making the employee think it's their idea.
Nominated by Vipul Adlakha

fact-based management: A novel concept touted by business gurus for improving profits. First, evaluate and measure a given business process, then use those "facts" to streamline it. Simply amazing.
Nominated by Steven Parrish

fact witness: Someone who actually has direct knowledge of an event. The opposite of an "expert witness," who simply renders opinions based on expertise.
Nominated by Julie Power

failing in: When your grades aren't bad enough to flunk out, but they're so poor you can't transfer enough credits to another university to make it worthwhile. So you plug along with a 1.8 GPA.
Nominated by Barb Friedman

faith-based intelligence: A top-down approach to management in which the top executives' philosophy is: “We know the answers -- now give us the intelligence to support those answers.”
Nominated by Mark Worden

Fake Bake: The brand name for a sunless tanning solution that comes in lotion, spray, mousse and lip gloss (no kidding). In its lower case form, it’s also another name for indoor tanning salons.
Nominated by Scott Haddon

fan grooming: The process where new, up-and-coming bands use Web sites, such as MySpace.com, to create a following and groom impressionable youngsters to become their fans and attend their gigs.
Nominated by Andrew Greaves

FAQ: The link on a Web site where a company sends people because it doesn't have the time, resources or patience to deal with them. Generally pronounced F-A-Q, but the pronunciation most often used by the frustrated consumer is Fa-Q.
Nominated by Rob Monteleone

fast-casual: The restaurant industry's hottest segment, it's a restaurant without table service that offers higher-quality food (several notches above fast-food burgers and fries). Also known as adult fast food.
Nominated by Steve Hannaford

fat-fingered: To hit the wrong button, key, etc., when dialing, typing, etc. While we like to blame it on poorly designed keyboards and keypads, most of the time it's because we're simply klutzes. "Here's the correct URL. I
fat-fingered it the first time."
Nominated by Franz Krachtus and others

fat pill: A doughnut, particularly one from Krispy Kreme.
Nominated by Tom Inglesby

fat tax: A tax on foods thought to be major contributors to obesity. Also known as the Twinkie tax.

faulty-tasking: When multi-tasking goes awry.
Nominated by Mike Knox

fauxtography: The staging, tampering, directing, Photoshopping, etc., of news photographs. They may look like news, but they're not. Several major news organizations have been burned lately by war zone photographers eager to make a name for themselves -- or at least a few bucks.

featurize: To add features to a product - often unnecessary - in the name of meeting a customer's needs.  "As users identify new ways of using it, we try to featurize the product to meet those needs."
Nominated by Scott Dittman

FEMA approach: When a problem arises, meetings are held and action plans drawn up, but no one does anything.
Nominated by Steven Phillips

50-50-90 rule: A variation of Murphy’s law. Given a 50-50 chance of things going right, they'll go wrong 90% of the time.
Nominated by Bill Garcia

filther: Any system used to filter out e-mail filth or block access to pornographic Web sites.
Nominated by Alan Batts

financial pit stop: To refuel one's financial resources. For the self-employed, it's taking a meaningless (but paying) job to survive on until the economy regains its health or the next venture comes along.
Nominated by Tom Namtvedt

firewall account: A small balance bank account primarily used for online purchases. That way if the account information is stolen, there’s very little for bad guys to take.
Nominated by Tom Inglesby

first eyes: The battle for your eyeballs rages on. The first page Web page you look at after you sign on gets "first eyes." The term is used a lot by ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and portals. Basically, it refers to getting the first crack at selling/influencing a Web user.
Nominated by Harry Jones

first mover: In business, it’s the company that gets its new innovative product or service (or solution) to market first. Supposedly, this gives them a "first-mover advantage" and the opportunity to dominate the market and making it difficult for others to compete against them. Amazon.com was considered to have the "first-mover advantage." But marketing research shows that being first doesn’t guarantee long-term success. There are plenty of tortoises that started slowly but won the day.

first strike ration: A high energy, eat-on-the-move meal for soldiers designed to keep them going at full speed with little sleep during the first days of a conflict. Includes items such as caffeinated chewing gum and “zapple sauce” -- a carbohydrate-laced apple mush.

Fisher-Priced: Having toy-like qualities. Often used by techies to describe less than desirable hardware or software. "Bob, have you tested Windows XP?" "Yeah Dan, it's completely Fisher-Priced."
Nominated by Nick Petricevich

fisk, fisked: To stretch or distort the truth beyond recognition for your own purposes. Coined by bloggers to describe British journalist Robert Fisk's columns and reports. Someone who has been fisked has had his or her views, actions, etc., misrepresented.
Nominated by Bette Sweet

five nines: Techie-speak for a system that can stay up 99.999% of the time. Considered the highest number realistically achievable. "We're going to need five nines from this system."
Nominated by David Fevre

flag conservatives: "Conservative" politicians who pay only lip service to some conservative values. They wrap themselves in the flag and toss around words like "evil" in order to keep from narrowing their political base.
Nominated by Mark Worden

flange-up: To match up. In plumbing and oil drilling, it's about connecting pipes. In the rest of the business world, when two ideas, projects or companies work well together they "flange-up."
Nominated by Mike Carpenter

Flashturbation: The superfluous use of Macromedia Flash animation on a Web site that adds little or no value. The result of a Web design team "pleasuring" itself for the sole purpose of being "cool."
Nominated by Jonathan Sneider

flies: Flies are the people who are sucked into the Web by clever marketing strategies that offer free points, coupons and credit toward merchandise. They spend hours glued to their computers viewing ads so they can rack up the ''rewards.''
Nominated by Richie Solomon

flight insurance: Incentives given to key employees to keep them from jumping ship, particularly when the company is being sold to someone employees might not be thrilled to work for.
Nominated by Gary Wollin

flush it out: Commonly misused by folks who actually mean "flesh it out." You flesh out an outline by adding details. In other words, you're putting flesh on the skeleton. Also known as putting meat on the bones.
Nominated by Hal Dunn

flyblogged: The result of unwanted spam being posted to an open blog. “I have just been comprehensively flyblogged.” Coined by technology analyst Bill Thompson, a regular commentator on the BBC’s “Go Digital.”
Nominated by Jane Tabachnick

fly the wrong flag: Behaving or acting in a manner deemed inappropriate by corporate culture.
Nominated by Stan Schliening

FOBIO: Frequently Outwitted By Inanimate Objects. A condition commonly associated with the assembly of any equipment. Peak period generally occurs on Christmas Eve. FOBIO T-shirt available
Nominated by Pete Saussy

follicularly disenfranchised: To be bald. (Something the Chief BuzzWhacker is all too familiar with.)

forensic theology: The use of theology as an intelligence tool to authenticate terrorist documents, identify perpetrators and pinpoint groups that are the greatest threats.
Nominated by Mark Worden

foreseeable future: A nebulous time frame used by business execs when they don't know OR don't want you to know what they plan to do next. "There are no plans for layoffs in the foreseeable future." Of course, that could mean two days, two weeks or two years.
Nominated by Fritz Liess

forward-worthy: E-mail (often of a humorous nature) deemed worthy of being passed along to friends and colleagues. Term is generally used by folks who claim they "rarely" or "never" forward such stuff. "I found this Buzzword of the Day forward-worthy. Hope you like it."
Nominated by Deri Reed

forklift upgrade: For some reason, the tech world loves to use industrial terms to explain things. A forklift upgrade is massive overhaul of a computer network or system, which will require a major investment of hardware. "Modernizing our accounting system will require a forklift upgrade."
Nominated by Valerie Noll

form factor: In computer-speak, it refers to the size, shape or physical arrangement of computer hardware. "If you're looking for a really cool form factor, you might try the Tablet PC."
Nominated by Marilynn Smith

forward-looking statements: A staple of annual reports and financial statements, it's corporate-speak for any statement that's not historical fact and sounds less frightening than "Okay, we're just guessing, but we expect …." Typical disclaimer -- "HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements."
Nominated by Aaron Alward

404: A derogatory term used to describe someone who is totally clueless. "Don't bother asking Bill...he's 404." Comes from the pesky error message you get when the Web page you’re looking for can’t be found: 404 Not Found.

411: Thanks to Ma Bell, we have a new synonym for "information." As in: "I haven’t got much time, so just give me the 411!"
Nominated by Bob Fegan

frendor: A preferred vendor seemingly based on the fact that they regularly play golf with the boss.
Nominated by Joe Shields

friendquest: Requesting someone to be a friend and or buddy on an online social network.
Nominated by Mike Pena

fritterware: Software with excess capabilities that entices users to spend time tweaking their work with little or no gain in productivity. Also used to describe just about any computer game played during work hours when the boss isn't looking.
Nominated by Ellen Martin

frying spam: The increasingly time-consuming morning ritual of deleting spam from your inbox.
Nominated by Ellen Martin

FUD Factor: When a company wants to play with the customer's head, it implements the FUD Factor: Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. It's often used by software companies. Example: If Company A launches a new product, Company Z will spin the FUD Factor about A's product. The goal is to delay any buying decision until Company Z can turn its vaporware into a product for sale.
Nominated by Rodger Beard

fugitive information: I once knew it and it didn't matter then so I let it go. But it does matter NOW and I can't remember it.
Nominated by Karin Knoop

functionality: A search of the Internet will turn up no less than 30 separate definitions for functionality, yet it doesn’t merit a standalone definition in most dictionaries. While it may serve its purpose in technical writing, it’s become an unnecessary and tedious staple in press releases. The "best" definition appears to be "functional capability." The best use of the word? Seldom.
Nominated by David Vanderschel and Eric Gollihar

furkid: A pampered pet that's treated like more like a child than ... well ... a pet.
Nominated by David Hatchuel

future-proof: To design or build a product or system that won't be made obsolete by the next wave of technological advancements. Of course, very few things are truly future-proof, though the paper clip has proven to be amazingly close.
Nominated by Nicholas Jabro