Technical jargon and specialized language used by computer programmers and experts that is often difficult for ordinary people to understand.
Blend of 'computer' and '-ese' (a suffix meaning language of a group), popularized in the 1960s during the rise of computing technology to describe the distinctive vocabulary of computer scientists.
Computerese is a perfect example of how technology creates its own dialects—much like how different professions develop secret vocabularies. The suffix '-ese' gave English a productive way to name group languages, from 'journalese' to 'medicalese,' letting us literally name the jargon we're struggling to understand.
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