Explonential!
I’d like to propose a new word: explonential. Example: “RSS
has gone from a slumbering data specification to a global Web
phenomenon as a result of explonential adoption by publishers
and users alike.” It’s the first in a family of connotative
mathematical functions I’d like to see used in technical writing.
Like a complex number, a connotative function has two orthogonal axes:
a mathematical basis, and a connotative basis. The formal definition
for an explonential relationship is the following:
(1)
ƒ(n) = an × kaboom!
Here’s another one: fractorial, in which some entity is
actually the product of lots of little versions of itself. Fractorial
systems actually grow in complexity much more rapidly than explonential
ones; proof is left as an exercise.
(2)
ƒ(n) = n × tiny version of n
× tiny version of (tiny version of n)
× …