By now, most of the moviegoing public is familiar with the novel jargon of the motion picture Tron, colorful words such as "Reco" and "De-rezz." These will no-doubt join the likes of "Droid" from Star Wars and Stranger in a Strange Lands "Grok" as shibboleths among science fiction fans.
Clever as these coinages are, however, they're "Tronnie-come-laties" compared to the word we're about to celebrate, the much-used, long-suffering, "tron" itself.
"Tron" has been around for centuries. A Greek word meaning "instrument," it has taken a back seat since its inception, dynamic but lonely at the tail-end of "neutron," "cyclotron," "electron," and other glossological superstars.
The importance of that little morpheme becomes clear if we try living without it for a moment. Who would ever take seriously a President's threat to provide NATO with neu bombs (What's wrong with the old ones?), and how much more evocative is mighty "electronic" compared to frail "electric"? A popular science fiction fiction catch-phrase of the 1950's, "Squa Tront," would have heen mere "Squat" without "Tron," and even the cultured likes of "metronome" have benefitred from the versatile vocable.
Over the years, Walt Disney Productions has given legitimacy to such tongue-twisters as "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," "zip-a-dee-doo-dah," "suhstitutiarylocomotion," and "bibbidy-bobbidi-boo." Now they have cast the spotlight on a frequently-abused four-letter word. The studio is to be commended.
One hopes that Sony will soon follow suit, further elevating the dignity of the word by dropping that my prefix "trini" from all their "tron" TVs...
