New definition – “cyberg”

[Updated 2033 hrs Central: I’ve made a few tweaks to the definition.]

I’ve thought of ingenious ways of creating words that are both funny and meaningful.  Reason for this way of thinking is the ever-growing number of cyber threats, attacks and vulnerabilities, and how little we (as a society in general) are doing anything about it.

Therefore, it is with great pleasure that I introduce a newly-created word called a “cyberg”.

cy-berg /’saɪ-bɜːɡ/

  1. a portmanteau or a portmanteau word representing a linguistic blending of two (2) words, “cyber” and “iceberg”, representing a concatenation of “cyber iceberg”, “cyberized iceberg”, or “cyberg”; see definitions below for further explanation.
  2. the initial state of a cyber threat or vulnerability in which one or more threats and/or vulnerabilities exist, requiring further action or additional investigation in which the amount of effort (time, materials, or resources) is unknown or indeterminate at the time of initial review.
  3. the condition by which an unknown trigger (such as an event, incident, failure, damage, or otherwise) has caused a situation to exist whereby the operational state of a cyber system, its environment, and safety status, has shifted to an indeterminate state that may be considered unsafe, based on previously established environmental conditions.
  4. a cyber-related condition whereby a threat or warning of a possible threat results in either misinterpretation or lack of understanding, resulting in no corrective action taken.*
  5. a threat or perceived threat in which any or all potential negative consequences have or will exceed that which is apparently visible (i.e.; two-thirds of an iceberg is submerged).**


[*]    (n.) Simplified variation of definition #3 provided by Vytautas Butrimas.
[**]  (adj.) Additional definition #4 provided by Thomas Minton.