With friends, in a hotel or in a cafe, one of the first reflexes is to ask for the Wi-Fi code. Are you more of those who say Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi? The eternal debate can quickly turn sour. So here you have which of the two formulas is the correct one on the occasion of World Wi-Fi Day, there you already have a clue.
The word Wi-Fi literally means “wireless Internet access” in French. Therefore, its diminutive French would give ASFI. A rather archaic term for a word that entered Le Petit Robert and Larousse in 2001.
End of breathless suspense. Both dictionaries promulgate the same rule: Wi-Fi, so the term is masculine. And Larousse defines Wi-Fi as a “high-speed (wireless) local area network intended for the connection of computer equipment in a home or professional environment.”
According to Larousse, affirming that Wi-Fi is a derivative of “Wireless Fidelity” is an error since it would only be an advertising slogan. Unlike Hi-fi, for example, which is short for High Fidelity, Wi-Fi does not have a specific origin.
Trademark registered in France
As Phil Belanger, a founding member of the Wi-Fi Alliance, noted in 2005 in BoingBoing: “Wi-Fi means absolutely nothing. It’s not an acronym. It doesn’t make any sense.”
According to the National Institute of Intellectual Property, the Wi-Fi trademark was registered in France in 2000.
So you’re locked into the fate of Wi-Fi. Another tech term is up for debate: Game Boy. Although today we use this denomination less, in the 90s the use of the masculine or feminine was debated.
In 1996, an advertisement for Nintendo present “the new Game Boy Pocket”. A few years later, “the “Game Boy Color” arrived. The instruction manual also says “Thank you for choosing the Nintendo Game Boy.” It is therefore the Nintendo brand itself that has opted for the masculine.
Source: BFM TV
