Thread for words you never bothered to look up & one day you realized "I still don't know what that means"

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Excelsior: also the motto of NY.

kate78, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:36 (fourteen years ago) link

i don't think anyone comes up with jargon for the hell of it.

probably not, but some jargon can be used to conceal meaning from the uninitiated

Mr. Que, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:36 (fourteen years ago) link

language evolves because people wanna talk about the same shit in a different way

ain't no thang but a chicken ㅋ (dyao), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:37 (fourteen years ago) link

and i'm trying to think of an example of jargon that makes meaning "easier" for all involved

Mr. Que, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:37 (fourteen years ago) link

this thread is very informative btw

Wood shavings! Laughing out loud! (HI DERE), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:38 (fourteen years ago) link

probably not, but some jargon can be used to conceal meaning from the uninitiated

boo hoo!

goole, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:38 (fourteen years ago) link

I think you meant "blood diamonds"

Wood shavings! Laughing out loud! (HI DERE), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:38 (fourteen years ago) link

also, annoying abbreviations aside, i love the precision of medical language, even if it is dense. kinda have to walk a fine line between colloquial explanations and high-test medicalese, though, when telling patients stuff, i think---some ppl hear plain talk and think yr a quack (cf Louis CK's bit on "head full of cancer"), others hear impenetrable lingo and think yr a hoity-toity know-it-all a-hole

drink more beer and the doctor is a heghog (gbx), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:39 (fourteen years ago) link

eh i think a lot of the time jargon comes from trying to have a word that more narrowly means something than its synonym but without partic baggage from other contexts that those synonyms are also used in that might confuse what u r talking abt.

plax (ico), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:42 (fourteen years ago) link

american military pentagonese is the worst, full of wtf acronyms for scary weapons and strategies

nakhchivan, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:42 (fourteen years ago) link

interestingly enough, I think the density caused by the precision of medical language (which I also think is awesome) is a direct causal influence on its propensity towards acronyms (which I find kind of funny)

xp: oh yeah, nobody acronyms like the military, although there I can see a stronger reason for speaking in obfuscatory terms as it's basically like training your force to speak in cyphers

Wood shavings! Laughing out loud! (HI DERE), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:43 (fourteen years ago) link

"jargon," to me, seems almost necessarily tied to obfuscation. like, it's a sort of code-switching that happens when some subset of ppl in the room want to have a conversation unencumbered by deference to ppl not in the know. or when they want to get "credit" for relaying information to someone (in the most precise way possible!) while knowing full well that the exact opposite has happened.

"lingo" or "shop-talk" is just the natural evolution of a profession's conversations with itself. it's basically just slang, but it enjoys a little more respect because its practitioners, you know, have jobs.

drink more beer and the doctor is a heghog (gbx), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:44 (fourteen years ago) link

I remember finding out what 'two-tap' means in the context of the military and being disgusted by the bro-iness of it all

ain't no thang but a chicken ㅋ (dyao), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:45 (fourteen years ago) link

FUGAZI

Mr. Que, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:45 (fourteen years ago) link

The most impenetrable jargon I've ever encountered is poker jargon.

my full government name (WmC), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:46 (fourteen years ago) link

so jargon is annoying, but lingo, technical terms and shop talk are good, even thought they're the same thing

goole, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:47 (fourteen years ago) link

vernacular >>> argot >>> jargon >>> lingo

also I was just fkn waiting for nakhchivan to find this thread, goddamn

william mcgonadal's tay ridge disaster (acoleuthic), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:47 (fourteen years ago) link

the third definition of "jargon" on MW is amazing:

obscure and often pretentious language marked by circumlocutions and long words

Wood shavings! Laughing out loud! (HI DERE), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:48 (fourteen years ago) link

"jargon," to me, seems almost necessarily tied to obfuscation. like, it's a sort of code-switching that happens when some subset of ppl in the room want to have a conversation unencumbered by deference to ppl not in the know. or when they want to get "credit" for relaying information to someone (in the most precise way possible!) while knowing full well that the exact opposite has happened.

this is why i don't rly think of medical language as jargon, it's sort of unavoidable that science needs acronyms and neologisms whereas marketing probably doesn't

nakhchivan, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:49 (fourteen years ago) link

exactly--i'll take medical jargon over business jargon any day of the week

Mr. Que, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:51 (fourteen years ago) link

both of those jargons should be in quotes

Mr. Que, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:51 (fourteen years ago) link

business jargon is used to justify the speaker's fukkin existence, imo (see also the shamelessly self-aggrandizing (!) language deployed by the "design community"). most other jargon is used to streamline conversation and, also imo, deliberately exclude non-practitioners.

drink more beer and the doctor is a heghog (gbx), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:54 (fourteen years ago) link

i dunno, business jargon doesn't really bother me either, anymore. it's all meant to express something. medicine has its own very specific technical-expression needs and so the language follows. business has more social information that people want to get across -- mostly saying-without-saying kind of bs -- alongside whatever factual or technical thing is being communicated. that's fine.

goole, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:55 (fourteen years ago) link

business has more social information that people want to get across -- mostly saying-without-saying kind of bs -- alongside whatever factual or technical thing is being communicated. that's fine.

bs! exactly.

Mr. Que, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:57 (fourteen years ago) link

xp yeah I agree with that goole - that's some nice blue-sky thinkin you're generating

ain't no thang but a chicken ㅋ (dyao), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:58 (fourteen years ago) link

i mean yeah, i find the whole thing hateful and abusive of the King's English and all, but i've never had to corral a bunch of people who don't care or flat out don't like each other to make something that nobody on earth really cares about, for money, and that's basically the world of quote-unquote productive enterprise. no wonder the language gets mangled.

goole, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:58 (fourteen years ago) link

i have been told to "action this going forward" by someone who meant "do this now".

404s & Heartbreak (jim in glasgow), Monday, 5 April 2010 16:59 (fourteen years ago) link

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Mr. Que, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:59 (fourteen years ago) link

there ya go. bullshit!

Mr. Que, Monday, 5 April 2010 16:59 (fourteen years ago) link

ha i guess i'm lucky enough to have avoided that kind of heavy businessese so far

goole, Monday, 5 April 2010 17:00 (fourteen years ago) link

distinction of jargon from technical language, no? (fuckin many xposts) altho I'm stupid enough to think that what even many of the wackier cont. phil. folks are doing could be described as technical writing.

poisonouse

I looked this up. Ought've read next post.

FC Tom Tomsk Club (Merdeyeux), Monday, 5 April 2010 17:02 (fourteen years ago) link

dude i am telling you the shit that people will say when they are trying to explain to a client why they made a logo/layout look a certain way (ie why it cost so much $$$$) would make you self-harm

drink more beer and the doctor is a heghog (gbx), Monday, 5 April 2010 17:03 (fourteen years ago) link

yeah well people sure can get lost in their own world, especially when they think they ought to be paid. that's the danger i guess, jargon insulates you from thinking, rather than speeding up the process. and when you hit a difficult spot, it's like a panic button that doesn't do anything anymore. "b-but i'm LEVERAGING here"

goole, Monday, 5 April 2010 17:09 (fourteen years ago) link

patients would ask me to take 'em on smoke break and I'd be like "ahora no, estoy muy preocupado"

lmao this is awesome

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 5 April 2010 23:51 (fourteen years ago) link

"Action this going forward" sounds like the birth of a new language.

adamj, Tuesday, 6 April 2010 04:26 (fourteen years ago) link

As in the syntax starting to tear completely away from standard English.

adamj, Tuesday, 6 April 2010 04:27 (fourteen years ago) link

'action it going forward year on year' to give it it's full due.

Jesse James Woods (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 13:25 (fourteen years ago) link

I'm pretty sure that is code for "kick me in the neck"

Wood shavings! Laughing out loud! (HI DERE), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 13:33 (fourteen years ago) link

lol

uh is that miseplled? (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 13:35 (fourteen years ago) link

LETHAL WEAPON 7: ACTION THIS

Mr. Que, Tuesday, 6 April 2010 13:36 (fourteen years ago) link

ameliorate

鬼の手 (Edward III), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 14:28 (fourteen years ago) link

heh insufferably tempted to just post what these words all mean as they come up, which would garner huge sb action

Jesse James Woods (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 14:29 (fourteen years ago) link

hahaha I am right there with you on that

Wood shavings! Laughing out loud! (HI DERE), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 14:29 (fourteen years ago) link

thread of not using Google

uh is that miseplled? (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 14:30 (fourteen years ago) link

but i mean seriously who doesn't know what ameliorate means

Jesse James Woods (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 14:30 (fourteen years ago) link

^ sb

Jesse James Woods (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 14:30 (fourteen years ago) link

I thought ameliorate was what you do on yelp

armando white (dyao), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 14:33 (fourteen years ago) link

ameliorate = a lecture given by an acne-ridden teenager

uh is that miseplled? (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 14:34 (fourteen years ago) link

it's a site for grading disappearances over the atlantic

Jesse James Woods (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 14:38 (fourteen years ago) link

uh...pacific?

Jesse James Woods (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 April 2010 14:38 (fourteen years ago) link


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