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Questionable Vocabulary-Builder: "Evangineer"

By Rob WalkerPosted Thursday, Aug. 16, 2001, at 9:00 PM ET

It's been a while since I've written anything about jargon or business buzz words, but the topic has been on my mind again lately. Yesterday, coincidentally, I stumbled across the Word Spy, a Web site devoted in part to words of recent coinage. Maybe you're already familiar with the Word Spy, but yesterday's word of the day seemed worth sharing: It is "evangineer." Word Spy defines this mix of evangelist and engineer as a noun meaning "a person who seeks to change some aspect of society and who has the high level of technical expertise required to make that change."

Truly loathsome.

Word Spy (which is not loathsome at all, by the way, but rather quite entertaining) also helpfully gives examples of the word in action. For instance, a certain Bob Richards, who is "a WOW speaker," discusses the word in this interview.

Tips on other questionable vocabulary-builders are of course welcome at the e-mail address below.

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