Gadget
Gadget ( English for: “apparatus”, “technical gimmick” or “knickknack”) describes a technical tool or device with previously unknown functionality and / or a special design . It is traditionally small and handy and designed to be carried along. The fun factor of a gadget plays a major role: Devices that define themselves as gadgets often cross the border between useful functionality and playfulness. The Duden defines gadgets as “small, sophisticated technical objects”. Often gadgets are also associated with gifts.
Examples are electronic mobile and handheld devices such as smartphones , MP3 players , netbooks , digital cameras , mobile game consoles or tablet PCs , but also electrical or mechanical devices such as Walkman or Rubik's Cube . Gadgets often contain functions that were previously not found in any technical device. Occasionally, smaller application programs such as widgets , a suitcase word made up of windows and gadgets , are also called this way.
However, it doesn't always have to be a matter of technical items. Gadgets can usually make work easier or easier, a nice toy, a clever idea, an original gift or even a party gag .
etymology
The origin of the word “gadget” is controversial, but it can be traced back to the 19th century. According to the Oxford English Dictionary , an anecdotal reference to the use of the word gadget for a technical device whose name cannot be remembered has existed since the 1850s . The earliest written reference is from 1886, published in Robert Brown's book Spunyarn and Spindrift, A sailor boy's log of a voyage out and home in a China tea-clipper , where sailors are quoted who mean their equipment. According to the British etymologist Michael Quinion , the British in the late 19th century called things gadgets, if they couldn't think of a more appropriate term, comparable to the German “Dingens” or the Silesian “Wihajster” (derived from What's his name? ). According to him, borrowing from other languages is likely, for example from the French dialect term “gagée” for tool. The Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language suspects the origin in the French gâchette , the name for the snap-cock of a lock, bolt or weapon lock. Another theory is that the term was coined by the French company Gaget, Gauthier & Cie , who were responsible for driving the construction of the Statue of Liberty , when they made a small model of the statue and named it after their company.
Development history
The principle of the gadget gained a high degree of recognition - even if not necessarily the name itself - through animated comic series, television series and action comedies, mostly from the espionage / agent genre: Intelligent miniature devices with imaginative functions were initially mainly in the hands numerous superheroes from Inspector Gadget to James Bond , but now also in successful US series formats such as B. The Big Bang Theory or The IT Crowd , in which the protagonists, mostly geeks or nerds , use numerous gadgets.
Meanwhile, gadgets have become an important branch of the digital industry. Instead of Q (from the James Bond franchise ) or Gadget Hackwrench (from the Disney cartoon series Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers ; German: Trixi from Chip and Chap - The Knights of the Right ) there are now manufacturers from the consumer goods industry with a focus on design like Apple or Sony , but also many new and unknown companies that invest in the conception of gadgets. Many of these companies are located in East Asian countries and some of them also export their goods directly via Internet auction houses such as eBay . These so-called China gadgets are currently enjoying growing popularity, especially in the German-speaking area, as the omission of middlemen often enables lower prices. In Germany in particular there are a number of web shops that specialize in selling gadgets.
Some of these gadgets are offered in electronics stores, but magazines such as Mickey Mouse or Yps are also included. The line between gadget and gimmick is fluid. The range of gadgets is just as diverse as the users of these objects. There are gadgets for small children, such as periscopes , office items, such as coffee mugs that can be heated via USB , to applications for the nerd and geek sector.
With the advent of graphical user interfaces , the control elements (input fields, buttons, scroll bars, etc.) were initially referred to as gadgets. The term has since been replaced by the word widget ( Wi ndow Ga dget ). The similarity to the English word midget (dwarf) is intentional.
Magazines and blogs
Due to the increasing popularity of gadgets and a promising advertising market in this area, numerous magazines and blogs were created around the newly created device shape. While older magazines like Wired have created sections on this topic, other publications deal almost exclusively with gadgets, including Gizmodo , Engadget or Stuff .
Trivia
The first atomic bomb was nicknamed "The Gadget" by its testers .
Individual evidence
- ↑ The term gadget also categorically stands for products that actually have no direct use, but still exert an attraction.
- ↑ Query gadget at Duden.de
- ↑ Konrad Lischka in: Technik-Kauderwelsch: Do you have your petting board with you? Spiegel Online from July 4, 2010.
- ↑ What is a gadget? - Find out! - Gadgets simply explained! Often used, but always different. Retrieved on July 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Entry in World Wide Words by Michael Quinion
- ↑ Kathryn Westcott: The day the world lit up , BBC, July 15, 2005 .