The Language of Intimidation

Bullying and harassment can take many forms

Source: John Hain / Pixabay

Bullying and harassment are undoubtedly as old as humanity itself, but tools like the phone and the internet have given us new ways to intimidate one another. However, how words are created to describe such behaviors follows a very predictable pattern.

Defining Doxxing

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded appearance of “doxing” was in March of 2011, when NBC News made reference to the practice. The network helpfully defined it as the malicious public posting of someone’s personal information online.

“Dox” appeared first in the pages of The New York Times that summer as “dox’d.” Described as meaning “to unmask someone,” the newspaper added that it was part of “hacker parlance.” It was also included in a December 2013 Times article devoted to new words and was defined in the same way as NBC News had.

But where had this term come from? The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) asserts that it is a phonetic respelling of “docs,” short for “documents.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary states that it is derived from earlier phrases, such as “dropping docs” or “doc-dropping.”

Doxxing is best described as a form of cyberbullying, with the intention to take revenge on or to harass those whom the perpetrator disagrees with or dislikes. The release of someone’s home address or phone number can facilitate other forms of harassment, and posting a Social Security number or date of birth might lead to identity theft. Doxxing is also quite common: A 2022 review found that one in five Americans had personally experienced it.

But how should it be spelled? The 2013 article in the Times rendered it as “dox” but added that it was sometimes spelled “doxx.” By the summer of 2017, the word had graduated to an appearance in a Times news headline (How ‘Doxxing’ Became a Mainstream Tool in the Culture Wars). It seems that the double X form has become the preferred version for that paper: Doxxing has graced the pages of the Gray Lady 166 times to date, whereas “doxing” has appeared only 17 times.

A preference for doxxing isn’t universal: Last November, the Times reported that Columbia University had formed a Doxing Resource Group. And Microsoft Word insists that doxxing is a misspelling and will autocorrect it to “doxing” if left to its own devices.

The Scourge of Swatting

Another form of intimidation is called “swatting.” This is a false request for emergency services, such as the police or an ambulance, to be sent to the victim’s home.

References to the practice appear in the Times as early as the spring of 2013 (‘Swatting’ Hoax Tests the Police and Stars Alike), when it was reported that a “full-blown epidemic” was underway. It seems to have surged again in 2015, in articles headlined Online ‘Swatting' Becomes a Hazard and The Serial Swatter. Not surprisingly, articles about swatting often refer to doxxing as well.

A rash of swatting incidents was reported earlier this month, targeting various judges or other officials involved in former President Trump’s ongoing legal battles or ballot access. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, for example, was targeted this way after ruling that Trump was barred from appearing on the state’s primary ballot.

Swatting incidents have afflicted politicians of all stripes, including Florida Senator Rick Scott and Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Making Nouns From Verbs

Both doxxing and swatting are examples of what linguists call denominalization. Simply put, this is making a verb out of a noun. In the case of swatting, the noun is the acronym SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics), first attested in 1968. But the new term has the added resonance of sounding like swatting (“to hit with a smart slap,” as defined by the OED). And that sense of the term has been around since Shakespeare’s day, appearing in print as early as 1615.

Nouns have a way of sprouting verbal forms whenever they get the chance—think of how “adult” has given rise to “adulting.” I was reminded of this recently when a friend told me about how her daughter described a fight between two girls at her high school. One of the girls repeatedly hit the other with a popular type of tumbler. The students started referring to how the victim had been “Stanleyed.”

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One can only hope that this form of intimidation doesn’t catch on.