I know someone’s going to post that someone used it on ARPANET in the early 70s or something. But I just saw this for the first time this past Wednesday on two threads here on the SDMB.
Someone used “noc” for “night”, and “tonoc” for “tonight”. It obviously comes down from Latin, ultimately. I’ve been looking aroung on Internet message baords for a good 6 years now, and had never seen it used before this week.
What are the origins? Did something in recent pop culture popularize it?
You saw it in two different threads, but was it two different posters? eleanorigby is the only one I’ve ever seen do this in any medium. The Polish word for night is also “noc,” so I asked her if she has an Eastern European background. She said no, but she’s a nurse so she’s picked up writing “noc” for “night” from updating charts and so on.
Ah … okay. Thought I was missing out on some newfangled trend.
It’s weird to be on the Net and feel that, sometimes, things are still passing you by.
If you google the word tonoc, it appears that **eleanorigby ** is the only person on the planet that uses it. Less than 1500 hits, and most are either pages in foreign languages, or mis-spellings of tonic.
The rest are blog entries and such from medical folks.
But still, less than 1500 hits is just puny.
Medical person here - I also use ‘tonoc’ for ‘tonight’. I’ve actually said “twonock” out loud without being aware of it until I see the blank stares. I’ve also said “pern” to mean ‘as needed (prn)’, as in “I’d rather leave the ceiling fan on and only use the AC pern”. So I’ve got eleanorigby’s back on this.
Well, much as I long for the accolade–I am not the only person on the planet that uses it. You say yourself that “medical folks” use it–I am such a one.
Hey, it’s a minor type of fame, but I’ll take it!
(y’all can take it off my 15 minute limit, 'kay?)
Sorry, meant to mention this earlier. Thanks for the getting of my back and I, too, find myself saying–so, are you up ad lib? (to which I receive puzzled stares), meaning are you putzing around today or similiar, and I use the c with the line above it* in all my correspondence–I would use it here, if I could.
I don’t pronouce “prn”** as pern; I speak each letter–but is a very useful thing.
*signifies “with”
**means "as needed’-it actually does stand for three separate latin words, but it’s late and I have no idea where my book of Latin abbreviations is.
pro re nata