Sunday, March 21, 2010

Of mouse and mice


I don't think it's all that clear but it's apparent there's only a single line of words right at the top of the picture. The picture was taken from the NTU's ADM website. Click to enlarge. The keyword is underlined in red.

Well, I think we all know what that means. I would define it to be the action of placing your mouse over the image in order to trigger some kind of effect. It can be considered an IT word because you definitely wouldn't use that word elsewhere. In the first place, the word mouse is an item specifically related to the IT world.

As commonplace as the word mouseover may seem, its meaning is not reflected in dictionaries. Neither the OED, Merriam-Webster or OALD had entries for it. All of them only had a part of the entry on mouse to reflect this sense.

Such as the OALD, which states that a mouse is..
mouse
/ma{phon_capu}s/ noun (pl. mice /ma{I}s/)

2 (pl. also mouses) (computing) a small device that is moved by hand across a surface to control the movement of the cursor on a computer screen: Click the left mouse button twice to highlight the program. * Use the mouse to drag the icon to a new position. see cat

This got me wondering if it would be good to actually include the verb mouseover (or mouse over) into the sense of the word under the entry mouse. The sense of the word mouse would then not only include the explanation that it is a small device for computers, but also a particular and common way of using the mouse.

The Urban Dictionary has an entry for mouseover.

Mouse over
To use the mouse to move the screen cursor over a spot or area of the computer screen.

If the meaning of mouseover is being reflected in more major dictionaries, it might be helpful to people who have little knowledge about computers, or people who are just starting to learn some computer skills. Basically, to allow people whom the word mouseover does not make sense to to understand the meaning. The common usage of this word has made it no longer some kind of IT jargon, but a rather ordinary word. In that case, it might be useful to codify this usage into dictionaries. Though of course, there might be considerations such as the stability of the word.

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