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From: nather@utastro.UUCP (Ed Nather)
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: "high-level" (some thoughts)
Message-ID: <1001@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 13-Jan-85 13:08:50 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.1001
Posted: Sun Jan 13 13:08:50 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Jan-85 01:10:45 EST
References: <17@mit-athena.ARPA>
Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 18

[]
  >I wish we could find a way to stop (or at least seriously impede) the misuse
  >of technical terms by people who are just trying to sound impressive.  But I
  >suspect that this is impossible as long as science and technology have such
  >high regard among the general the population.  We just have to learn to live
  >with the fact that many technical terms also have a "media" meaning that is
  >often a garbled or distorted parody of the "real" meaning.  It's part of the
  >price we pay for our success.
  >
  >				John Chambers

There is hope: a `technical' term ported to common use only sounds impressive
for a short time -- it is either widely adopted, and therefore rendered quite
unimpressive, or it is *not* adopted because it is inappropriate, and is thus
rendered unimpressive.  All we have to do is hang in there.

Ed Nather
{allegra,ihnp4}!{noao,ut-sally}!utastro!nather