English edit

Etymology edit

Blend of dot-com +‎ commiserate.

Pronunciation edit

  • (file)

Verb edit

dot-commiserate (third-person singular simple present dot-commiserates, present participle dot-commiserating, simple past and past participle dot-commiserated)

  1. (slang, historical) To seek solace with other people left jobless by the dot-com bubble collapse.
    • 2000 August 20, Abby Ellin, “If at First You Don't Succeed, Celebrate!”, in The New York Times:
      An Internet marketing firm called Thehiredguns.com sponsors pink-slip parties where casualties can get together and "dot-commiserate."
    • 2003 July 29, Helen Kirwan-Taylor, “Rock bottom? We're on a high”, in The Telegraph:
      Failure became a buzz word when the dotcom bubble burst in the late Nineties. Many paper millionaires instantly became part of the "90 per cent club" (people who had lost 90 per cent of their wealth, or more). The casualties got together and "dot-commiserated".
    • 2009 April 1, Gendy Alimurung, “Pink Slip Parties in L.A.: Laid Off but Not Out”, in LA Weekly:
      (The original, ancestral pink slip parties date to 1910, but became known to modern-day workers in the late 1990s, when downsized tech sector employees got together to dot-commiserate.)