prairie dogging

photo credit: "Prairie dog center" by Laura Wolf (CC-BY-2.0) Image cropped

Definition: (noun phrase) the sudden appearance of curious employees’ heads popping up over the tops of their cubicles

Example: Dan’s popcorn in the microwave caused a sudden wave of prairie dogging from cubes near the kitchen.

Quote:

“…but even the most dreadful tongue-lashing must end
In a corner office, or the hall outside,
As the prairie-dogging cube-dwellers turn away,
And under-managers pretend they cannot see,
All relieved that the disaster did not spray
Its harsh, forsaken splash on them, and they pretend
There's no important failure…”

- Poet Marcus Bales, “Musing on the Boss Art”

Prairie dogs are super-cute little ground-dwelling animals that you should never try to pet. And this cute phrase caught my ear on NPR the other day when it was discussed by author Paul Dickson, there to promote his new book, Slang: The Topical Dictionary of Americanisms.

Dickson’s book is separated into topics like sports, eBay (in case you need some online auction slang) and of course, office-speak. The expression prairie dogging (which, as you can see, can also be used as a modifier) is not exactly new, but neither the word nor the action existed before office cubicle was the norm. In the last few years, the action has been getting more play on television, especially in advertisements.

But you should be careful about how you use this week’s word, because it also has a very disgusting and scatological meaning in other contexts (don’t read on if you are eating breakfast). In its other incarnation, prairie dogging refers to solid waste material trying to get out of a person’s body while they desperately look for a bathroom.

For better or worse (I’m voting for worse) while the office-related version appears frequently in online office slang dictionaries, this second meaning seems to be more common in actual use.

Oh, and in case you were wondering why you shouldn’t pet prairie dogs, it’s because they can carry the bubonic plague. You’re unlikely to catch it, but better safe than sorry!

A. C. Kemp | November 2, 2006