Although halfalogue was one of the Words of the Year according to the New York Times one year ago, I didn’t hear about it until this week when I looked at the 2012 Old Farmers Almanac.
You probably already know what I just learned: Halfalogue is half of a cell phone conversation heard involuntarily.
I believe if a word makes it in both the Times and the Almanac it must be sufficiently important to discuss…in this case for about half the time of a normal conversation!
According to a snippet in Schott’s Vocab a few months earlier:
“We have less control to move away our attention from half a conversation (or halfalogue) than when listening to a dialogue.” Lauren Emberson, a co-author of the study that will be published in Psychological Science.
Emberson is a PhD candidate at Cornell University who apparently both coined the word and conducted research that found hearing half of a conversation to be more disruptive than hearing the entire conversation. She concluded that halfalogues are more:
- Distracting (which I agree with), and
- Irritating (which I disagree with).
Note than one of the synonyms of distracting is entertaining, which is how I react to these “incomplete” conversations.
Here’s a potential halfalogue…a little too loud, of course, or we wouldn’t be able to hear:
- “He did what?….”
- “I can’t believe that. Are you sure?….”
- “So, what happened next?….”
- “Do you think they’ll ever be able to work together again?….”
Now, if I heard this, I’d be thinking that the guy being discussed did something so wrong that the person I’m overhearing can’t believe it. And, of course, the two people being discussed will never work together again…probably never even see each other again. He must be a cad and maybe even a criminal, don’t you think?
Here’s another potential version of the story that is just as possible and significantly more positive:
1. “He did what?”
Went to a jeweler and bought Jan a big diamond.
2. “I can’t believe that. Are you sure?”
Yes, he’s really in love.
3. “So, what happened next?”
He asked her to marry him, and she said yes last night.
4. “Do you think they’ll ever be able to work together again?”
He’s moving to a different department.
More likely, the real story is probably fairly boring:
1. “He did what?”
Forgot to pick up Jan to go to their meeting.
2. “I can’t believe that. Are you sure?
He’s such a doofus.
3. “So, what happened next?”
He just drove to the meeting by himself and was completely unprepared without her.
4. “Do you think they’ll ever be able to work together again?”
After this, he’ll never forget her again, that’s for sure.
I like adding my own stories, which I’m guessing are much more interesting than reality most of the time. So rather than irritating, I find halfalogues fun.
The next time you find yourself overhearing a halfalogue, you might want to do as I do and have a good laugh by imagining the half of the conversation that you can’t hear.