Are the fictitious names “Initech” and “Initrode” a play on words?

Question

In the comedy Office Space, the protagonist works for a company called "Initech". At the end of the film, his co-workers take jobs at a competing company called "Initrode".

It seems that these names are meant to sound silly, but can someone here tell me if these fictitious names may also be some sort of word-play?

It seems to us over here in Yorkshire, 'isn't it heck'! -- in it 'eck, we'd say. IOW, is this hell or what? — steve moxon, Jan 22 '17 at 12:33
Okay people, everyone please make up their minds if it's Initrode or Intertrode. — Napoleon Wilson, Feb 05 '18 at 13:30

score 51 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 09 '20 at 20:35

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In the movie at around 41:56, as Peter takes down the banner previously put up by Bill Lumbergh, you can see another banner in the background that diagrams the company name's etymology:

Initiative + Technology = INITECH

Initiative + Technology = INITECH

edited Sep 09 '20 at 20:35

pk_

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answered May 16 '15 at 17:04

Apophenia Overload

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score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 10 '12 at 19:39

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I believe the "ini" is supposed to be the phonetic equivalent of the word "any." So the people are working for "any tech" company. "Trode" is short for electrode. As something that often plugs into something else, trode could reference a cubicle worker that can easily be plugged in to a new work environment. Not surprisingly, trode also apparently references a part of the male anatomy (see Urban Dictionary). In the movie, Peter mistakenly calls it Penetrode.

answered Aug 10 '12 at 19:39

MJ6

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Sounds plausible, but is there any source for this Ini = Any concept? – Flimzy Jul 23 '13 at 00:13
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another possibility: ini is a Windows standard for configuration files. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INI_file. – Ben Plont Sep 11 '13 at 16:02
ini as a prefix doesn't check out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefix and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_and_Latin_roots_in_English. I think @apophenia-overload's answer makes more sense. Or at least it's a combination of the two answers. – ZombieDev Apr 27 '16 at 16:06

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 27 '13 at 20:20

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My guess is the "ini" in initech and iniwas a short way to say "Innovation" as many tech businesses love to get that buzz word invoked.

answered Nov 27 '13 at 20:20

Milton Waddams

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score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 29 '18 at 09:12

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I imagine the fictitious name initech is to poke fun at how there are so many companies that have a varied spelling of this name: inotek, inateck, etc.

edited Jul 29 '18 at 09:12

Napoleon Wilson

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answered Jul 29 '18 at 08:10

vercingetorix

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Are the fictitious names “Initech” and “Initrode” a play on words?

4 Answers4