Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site utastro.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!ut-sally!utastro!nather 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