# Origins of "cow-orker" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 10, 2006, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895 "2006-02-10T19:07:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/1 "2006-02-10T19:07:04Z")
[This post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7089187&postcount=9) in another thread said that > [@crazyjoe](#): > > Actually, it’s a dilbertism. In one of his early newsletters, Scott Adams asked for titles of those people who we work with who annoy us, and who would be excluded from Dogbert’s New Ruling Class (that’a another story). The winning title was, indeed, cow-orker. However, I seem to remember this phrase before Scott Adams’s newsletters started. The first place I saw it was on alt.fan.cecil-adams. Anybody have a definitive cite for first use, or is this one of those things that doesn’t have a single point of origin? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/2 "2006-02-10T19:19:26Z")
Previous thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=302568&highlight=orker](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=302568&highlight=orker) At least as early as 1989 on usenet. Probably earlier. I would not be surprised if it predated electronic communications as a typewritten gag. ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/3 "2006-02-10T19:24:21Z")
Oops. I first saw “cow-orker” here on the SDMB and simply thought it was a humourous intentional misspelling. I’ve referred to co-workers that I greatly respect as “cow-orker” For all fans of my posts (both of you) please be advised no disrespect was intended! ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/4 "2006-02-10T20:53:47Z")
Yep – I remember it being used in the early '90s in alt.tasteless. I doubt it has one specific point of origin – it’s too easy to accidentally type “cow-orker” and then realize the humorous effect. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/5 "2006-02-10T21:31:24Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Previous thread: > > [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=302568&highlight=orker](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=302568&highlight=orker) > > At least as early as 1989 on usenet. Probably earlier. I would not be surprised if it predated electronic communications as a typewritten gag. What I find intriguing is that Charles Anderson seems to have used it first on Usenet as part of his signature. He used it in 14 posts, over the years 1989-1993 and in 3 different fora. No one else on Usenet seems to have used it or commented on it during that time frame. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/6 "2006-02-10T21:37:40Z")
When one changes his signature, does that also change his signature retroactively on old posts? An analogy with the SDMB: when I change my “location”, it is changed on all my archived old posts, too. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/7 "2006-02-10T21:45:08Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > When one changes his signature, does that also change his signature retroactively on old posts? An analogy with the SDMB: when I change my “location”, it is changed on all my archived old posts, too. On Usenet, the signature is part of the post, so it doesn’t change. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/8 "2006-02-10T21:54:56Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > What I find intriguing is that Charles Anderson seems to have used it first on Usenet as part of his signature. He used it in 14 posts, over the years 1989-1993 and in 3 different fora. No one else on Usenet seems to have used it or commented on it during that time frame. I don’t believe the DB we are looking at is complete. Usenet goes back to 1980, but the earlier articles are probably poorly archived, and archives certainly don’t include locally distributed newsgroups where a lot of chatter took place. You also have many other BB systems and mail lists from that era that help propogate things like this. Compuserve existed all through the 70’s. It was obviously an existing gag when Anderson used it in his sig. As somebody has already observed, it probably arose in multiple places, every time somebody inadvertently produced the typo. Note **Bewildebeest** ’s claim in that thread to have seen in instance in a company memo from the mid-80’s. ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/9 "2006-02-10T21:57:25Z")
> [@SkipMagic](#): > > On Usenet, the signature is part of the post, so it doesn’t change. In Soviet Russia, the post is part of YOU! In Space, no one can hear your sig! ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/10 "2006-02-10T22:18:29Z")
As a quick check, I looked for a random article of my own from 1987. The Google newsgroup search didn’t turn it up. I don’t know how complete their archive is. The Google newsgroup search was originally acquired from dejanews. As someone has noted, usenet signatures are part of the article text. In fact, a “user” is not a first-class entity that really exists in the usenet message structure. It’s just an article header, which could say anything. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/11 "2006-02-10T22:22:35Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > I don’t believe the DB we are looking at is complete. Usenet goes back to 1980, but the earlier articles are probably poorly archived, and archives certainly don’t include locally distributed newsgroups where a lot of chatter took place. You also have many other BB systems and mail lists from that era that help propogate things like this. Compuserve existed all through the 70’s. It was obviously an existing gag when Anderson used it in his sig. As somebody has already observed, it probably arose in multiple places, every time somebody inadvertently produced the typo. Note **Bewildebeest** ’s claim in that thread to have seen in instance in a company memo from the mid-80’s. I just seems to me mighty strange that it could have existed for four years without another person using it on something as extensive as Usenet. I don’t doubt that Anderson was not the first person to use it. But to suggest that it was propagated well-before Anderson used it is not believable to me. By that I mean it wasn’t a commonly used thing. As to the claim by **Bewildebeest** --the human memory is a tricky thing. Could be right, could be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2006, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/12 "2006-02-10T22:35:23Z")
I think it more likely that it had been propogated in other venues, like non-usenet BBS’s or compuserve, or maybe the WELL, come to that. Or perhaps local newsgroups outside the “net.\*\*\*\*” or “big seven” heirarchy. Those often develop their own private in-jokes. Anderson picked it up from one of those places, but his signature didn’t make it catch on in a general way. Somebody else imported it a few years later and it caught on. If the usenet archives are spotty, archives of various things like FIDONET are non-existent. ---
**Author:** ![KOJohnson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KOJohnson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KOJohnson)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/13 "2012-09-02T01:27:14Z")
“Cow-orker” shows up all over the place independently. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, at least, a number of word-processing programs automatically hyphenated compound words at the end of lines and interpreted “cow” as a basic morpheme, breaking the word there. Like thousands of others, I discovered the term that way, without having seen it elsewhere before. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/14 "2012-09-02T02:16:08Z")
Is there still some way to search newsgroups back to the eighties like people were doing upthread in 2006? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/15 "2012-09-02T02:51:05Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Is there still some way to search newsgroups back to the eighties like people were doing upthread in 2006? Google still has the content, subsumed into “Google groups”, which is buried way down in the list of Google products: > **[Sign in - Google Accounts](https://accounts.google.com/v3/signin/identifier?continue=https%3A%2F%2Fgroups.google.com%2Fmy-groups&followup=https%3A%2F%2Fgroups.google.com%2Fmy-groups&ifkv=AdBytiMDdpRJ_iPjvZ6pNCjnlnHZrwywMYNwppxRq061p0V9QHBGbEAvYb3OJX_6tuSM41zPOTaW&osid=1&passive=1209600&flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=ServiceLogin&dsh=S-1811883918%3A1748580613108158)** Although I notice the banner at the top: > [@](#): > > The old Google Groups will be going away soon. Switch to the new Google Groups. For now, I found some of my old usenet posts from the 1980s using the advanced search there. ---
**Author:** ![Terry\_Kennedy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@Terry\_Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terry_Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/16 "2012-09-02T06:46:01Z")
> [@KOJohnson](#): > > In the late 1980s and early 1990s, at least, a number of word-processing programs automatically hyphenated compound words at the end of lines and interpreted “cow” as a basic morpheme, breaking the word there. It goes back at least a decade before that. When I worked at Expertype (a typesetting house), we had forms taped near each terminal labeled “bad breaks” (a bad pun), where we’d write down words that the CCI composition software broke inappropriately across lines. I remember the first one I found: stamped- ed (stampeded). It actually took me a while to figure out what the real word was… ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origins-of-cow-orker/343895/17 "2012-09-02T22:23:02Z")
> [@Terry\_Kennedy](#): > > … the CCI composition software broke inappropriately across lines. Did it break up that 60’s or early 70’s band as “Zom- bees”? :d&r: [sub]ETA: And a quick google search shows that I misremembered the spelling they used. :whimpers in shame as I d&r:[/sub]