The boundless ocean of youth slang is replete with ever more vivid examples every year. Some of them make you smile, some make you blush, but we simply don’t understand the meaning of the rest of the expressions. This also applies to the now fashionable word "anon." Let's try to figure it out.
Meaning of the word
So what is anon? The meaning of the word can hardly be found in dictionaries. Nevertheless, we encounter him often. “Anon” means “anonymous,” that is, hiding his name; not having an indication of the author; not disclosing his personal data.
Such a seemingly simple word got its reduction from the light hand of Internet users, who have always been prone to trimming long plexus of letters in order to reduce the need to once again knock on the keys. On the
World Wide Web, everyone knows what anon means: someone who wants to be incognito, expressing his opinion. Why is this needed? Everyone has their own reasons not to give
their own name.Etymology
What is anon in its pristine meaning, the ancient Greeks knew, because it was their language that gave the world this word. Later it was transformed into the French version of anonyme, and after that into English anonymous.
The Greek word consisted of two parts: “without” and “name”, hence the meaning “nameless”. In this form, it has reached our days. It should be noted that the English language has its own version of what anon means. It is called the abbreviation, the truncated form of the primary variant. That is referred to as literary, normalized vocabulary. And they give him another meaning - one that has no memorable features, uninteresting.
However, in today's youth environment, the word "anon" is not in the framework of book vocabulary and is used as a separate emotionally expressive unit.
Synonyms and Antonyms
Explain what anon is possible in a more literary language. Nameless, unknown, non-public - these are some suitable options. Anonymous may be a letter, treatment, cash payment. More often nameless are comments on the Internet. This possibility is provided by the absence of the need to log in when entering a forum or site. A network user who leaves an anonymous message is called an announcement. Thanks to the richness of the Russian language, we can replace the slang version with a softer and more literary expression: a person who wishes to remain incognito.
The antonyms of this word are “famous”, “public”. Internet users who register on the communication sites on which they plan to communicate are more responsible for the content of the messages they leave. Mandatory authorization on sites significantly reduces the amount of spam (i.e. network advertising), off-topic remarks and holivars (meaningless disputes between people who curse not for consensus, but for the sake of the process).
Word use
To understand what “anon” is and when to use this word, you need to understand the culture of online communication. Namely, in its features, including anonymity. On most forums and sites, the user does not have to log in to leave a comment. This, according to many, is very convenient, because it saves from gender, age and other stereotypes.
But if some use their anonymity to freely communicate and share opinions, then another part of Internet users sees the advantage of anonymity in inciting ethical disputes with impunity on communication platforms, hacking websites and launching hacker attacks. Together, these malicious violators of network laws even founded their organization Anonymous. She is engaged in robbery on the World Wide Web up to information terrorism. All this allows absolute freedom on the Internet. So, as we see, the announcements on the Web are those who did not want to log in and perform certain actions without indicating their name.
Conclusion
Most often, what is anon is known to almost everyone who has a computer and Internet access. Teens and trolls most often become the same unauthorized users who, hiding their name, arrange heated debates on forums and insult everyone who succumbs to provocations.
There are those who not only gladly enter into Internet holivars, but also arrange network attacks with hacking sites and other types of atrocities, stories of which are replete with a lot of thematic sites. When criminal acts are committed only with the aim of having fun, the web pages of reputable organizations are filled with alien content: provocative pictures, records, articles.
As you can see, all lovers of using the Internet are called incognito as announcements in modern youth slang - from the most harmless to the most dangerous representatives.