Slosh slosh.

A few minutes ago, I overheard an I.T. guy telling a coworker how to get to a network location by going to Start, Run, and then typing "whack whack, networkaddress, whack, folder." 

Whack whack? 

That reminded me of my recent personal confusion over slash vs. forward slash vs. back slash. I have to tell people fairly often, as well, how to get to a different network location, and I'm always concerned that in telling them "backslash" I'm confused and telling them wrong (and I usually end it with, "the one above Enter"). I decided to look it up today and as it turns out, I was using the term "backslash" as being "the one above Enter" correctly. Good.

As it further turns out, "whack" is a nickname for "slash" (or "forward slash," though a lot of internet sources say that "forward" is redundant and unnecessary).

However, "slosh" is a nickname for "backslash."

So he was still saying it wrong. He should have said "slosh slosh." 

Personally, I'm considering referring to the (forward) slash as a "sepratrix" from here on out, just to see who I can confuse by trying to look smart.

Then again, it's not "smart" to use words you're fairly sure your audience won't understand, as it simply hinders communication and makes you look like a wiseass. So perhaps not.