Word Spy - nastygram

(NAS.tee.gram) n. A letter, e-mail, or other message that insults, criticizes, or attempts to intimidate the recipient.

Example Citation:

In fairness, the courts have ruled over the years that businesses have to defend their trademarks vigorously or risk losing them to the public domain, which would prevent them from profiting from the trademarks.

One way they do this is through the cease-and-desist letter or e-mail message—or "nastygram."

"A "nastygram." is typically just a signal that the trademark holder wants you to stop using his trademark," says Stuart Mayer, a partner at Mayer Fortkort & Williams, an intellectual-property law firm.
—Reid Goldsborough, "Dealing with Internet 'Nastygrams'," Consumers' Research Magazine, April 1, 2003

Earliest Citation:

One of the most storied devices in nuclear lore is the "hot line" between the White House and the Kremlin. The Americans and the Soviets agreed to install the line shortly after the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, during which messages between President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev sometimes were delayed by as much as eight hours.

It is a teletype system, with terminals in the office of the chairman of the Communist Party in Moscow and dual terminals in the Pentagon war room and the White House in Washington. It has been used in occasional international crises, including the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Military officers call the messages "nastygrams."
—Bill Prochnau, "The Third World War, and a Trip Through the Looking Glass," The Washington Post, April 30, 1982

Category:

E-mail

Posted on July 24, 1997
Updated on May 7, 2003