# Wiki: common noun; Wikipedia: proper noun **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 11, 2006, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-common-noun-wikipedia-proper-noun/368255 "2006-08-11T04:31:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-common-noun-wikipedia-proper-noun/368255/21 "2006-08-14T15:16:20Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > Haven’t we already done this? I dunno. Did you look it up on wiki? ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-common-noun-wikipedia-proper-noun/368255/22 "2006-08-14T15:39:58Z")
> [@iampunha](#): > > Actually, I use ‘wiki’ as a verb, meaning ‘to look something up on Wikipedia.’ > > (Does placing a preiod or comma inside quotation marks look wrong to anyone else?) When I thing of the verb “wiki”, I think of putting something onto (into?) Wikipedia, not looking something up in it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-common-noun-wikipedia-proper-noun/368255/23 "2006-08-14T16:23:07Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > I’d settle for people being able to figure out the difference between _an_ internet(work) and _the_ Internet. Heck, I’d settle for people knowing the difference between the Internet and the Web. Fight my ignorance. I thought an intranet was the work network. So, do school me: what’s an intranet, an internet, and the Internet? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-common-noun-wikipedia-proper-noun/368255/24 "2006-08-16T01:32:42Z")
> [@One Day Fish Sale](#): > > This bugs me, especially from a group of pedants like us. So, let’s all stop provoking my ire in this way. Please use the word _Wikipedia_ when referring to that oft-cited _wiki_. Thank you for your attention. > > Hugs and lollipops. Heh. Where I work, it’s a WIKI, all caps, all the time. I’ve explained it to them, these are intelligent people, and they still do it. It’s not an acronym, assholes. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-common-noun-wikipedia-proper-noun/368255/25 "2006-08-16T01:55:53Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > OK. Chalk that up to my ignorance that there was actually a software product named Wiki. > > On the other hand, I would still hold that Wiki is a legitimate nickname for Wikipedia No, no, never, dead wrong in every case, absolutely not. Please don’t try to legitimize ignorance. This is like those grannies who interchange the terms “web” and “email” as in “I just logged onto email and checked the weather at [weather.com](http://weather.com)”. The wiki genre of software is in wide use in companies everywhere now, this is not just a propellerhead distinction, it’s a matter of using correct unambiguous terminology. Let’s go through this one time for everyone’s benefit: **The internet:** A large-ish collection of computers linked together over a public network using internet protocol. **Intranet:** Exactly like the internet, except only accessible through private networks, walled off from the outside. **Extranet:** Parts of an organization’s intranet that can be accessed through the internet, for example so that employees can work from home. **The web:** A collection of documents in different locations that contain links to one another. Access to these documents is provided by computers connected via the internet. In other words, the web is the smallest but best known function of the internet. **wiki:** A web site running software that allows direct editing of the contents. Original name was “WikiWikiWeb” from the Hawaiian “WikiWiki” because it means “quick” and because it supplies the 2 W’s needed for the cute acronym. The original wiki, called “Portland Pattern Repository”, predated Wikipedia by a good 10 years or so. Wikis exist all over the internet as well as in intranets. **Wikipedia:** A well-known online encyclopedia presented and edited as a wiki. Always “Wikipedia.” Never, never, never “on Wiki”, unless you want to sound like a complete tool. Nobody on Wikipedia makes this mistake, nobody who knows what they’re talking about makes this mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-common-noun-wikipedia-proper-noun/368255/26 "2006-08-16T19:46:40Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Fight my ignorance. I thought an intranet was the work network. So, do school me: what’s an intranet, an internet, and the Internet? A network is multiple computers connected together. An internetwork (later shortened to “internet”) is multiple networks connected together. Hence, if your company has completely separate networks in three cities, and puts in dedicated wiring and gateways to connect them, you now have an internet. Note that the word “an” goes with the lowercase “i” in internet. When the whole friggin’ world connected up to Arpanet, it became known as “the Internet” (note the word “the” and the uppercase “I”). The old nonspecific word “internet” fell largely into disuse, but it still has its place. A totally secure set of networks connected together but disconnected from the Internet could still be considered an internet, though. Once everybody had their networks hooked into the Internet, somebody decided we needed a new word for the parts of the network that were still private (not accessible from anywhere else on the Internet). That word is “intranet.” Basically, it’s your network, minus the public parts. **Brain Wreck** also defined the word “extranet.” It’s a fuzzy term dreamed up by a marketing guy somewhere, and everybody seems to use it differently, rendering it pretty useless. I first came across it as a term for a database that customers could access to check order status and stock levels. In many cases, it’s just a password-protected Web site. In others, it’s a direct connection to non-Web data. In yet others, it’s all or part of an intranet. I refuse to use the word because it’s so fuzzy and nonspecific. ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-common-noun-wikipedia-proper-noun/368255/27 "2006-08-16T20:57:51Z")
> [@Captain](#): > > Actually, I use ‘wiki’ as a verb, meaning ‘to look something up on Wikipedia.’ I use “wiki” as a verb in the following way: Me: What did you think of my draft? Him: “It was good except the first paragraph needs re-working, and I think the second part could be a bit clearer, and that thing about the elephants is just plain wrong, and there’s other stuff I can add to the bit about the wormhole.” Me: Well, either you can dictate your changes to me over the phone, or I can send you the original and you can give it back when you’re done (meaning I can’t touch it until then), or else we can **wiki** it up and work on it together." [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wiki-common-noun-wikipedia-proper-noun/368255.md?page=1)