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un.sub.scrib.athon
Pronunciation: &n-s&b-'skrIb-&-"tha:n
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1 : a sequence of list removal requests sent to an unmoderated,
over-subscribed email list, rather than to the owners of the
list; specif: such an event in which each removal request
encourages another to be sent by the next most
irate subscriber;
a situation embodying both
dramatic irony and a tragedy of the
commons: marked by both incongruity between the actual result of
a sequence of events and the intended result, and by the abuse
and consequent
destruction of a non-excludable public good.
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Etymology: English, un- + subscribe + marathon, from un-, Middle
English, from Old English; akin to Old High German un- un-,
Latin in-, Greek a-, an-, Old English ne not; subscribe, Middle
English, from Latin subscribere, literally, to write beneath,
from sub- + scribere to write, Marathon, Greece, site of a
victory of Greeks over Persians in 490 B.C., the news of which
was carried to Athens by a long-distance runner.
Date: 2002
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