- BIY
- abbr.Purchasing the materials required for a repair or renovation that one has hired a tradesperson or other professional to perform. [From the phrase buy-it-yourself.]Example Citations:China's new middle class tend to buy their new apartments as shells, and then kit them out themselves...It is less DIY, however, than BIY: Buy-it-Yourself. New homes need fitting out from floor to ceiling, a job that only professionals can do.—Malcolm Moore, " Orient Homes chief Li Fengjiang tools up for China's DIY revolution: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/6091955/Orient-Homes-chief-Li-Fengjiang-tools-up-for-Chinas-DIY-revolution.html," The Daily Telegraph, August 27, 2009The gap between hands-on DIY activities and handing over an entire project to a building contractor is shrinking because consumers are opting for BIY — buy-it-yourself.—" If DIY is too much work, join the BIY trend to cut costs: http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5736318" (subscription required), Cape Argus, November 20, 2010Earliest Citation:BIY is where consumers buy the materials for professionals to fit.—"According to the Polycell Report, from Reed's Polycell Products, DIY is being replaced by BIY (Buy-it-yourself)," Marketing, April 10, 1987Notes:The 1950s were a hobbyist's paradise with magazines such as Mechanix Illustrated and Popular Mechanics showing the do-it-yourselfer how to build a go-kart for the kids and how to soup up his lawnmower with an actual motor! In fact, the term do-it-yourself didn't enter the language until the early 50s, and the abbreviation DIY (upon which the abbreviation BIY is based) soon followed. (My use of the male pronoun here is intentional; this was mostly a man's world, which is why the term do-it-herselfer: http://wordspy.com/words/do-it-herselfer.asp — a woman who does her own repair and maintenance work — didn't bubble up until the late 1980s.)Related Words: Categories:
New words. 2013.
