Words...interesting...

[ianuk]

How words change definition is very interesting or how words can have wildly different definitions is very fascinating to me. Here is an interesting one. I've bolded the definitions that seem very, very juxtaposed. From Merriam-Webster Online

Main Entry: 1jar·gon
Pronunciation: \ˈjär-gən, -ˌgän\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French jargun, gargon
Date: 14th century

1 a : confused unintelligible language b : a strange, outlandish, or barbarous language or dialect c : a hybrid language or dialect simplified in vocabulary and grammar and used for communication between peoples of different speech
2 : the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group
3 : obscure and often pretentious language marked by circumlocutions and long words

— jar·gony \-gə-nē, -ˌgä-nē\ adjective

Comments

[snotblossom.livejournal.com]

Technical terminology and the characteristic idiom of a special activity or group IS confused and unintelligible to the unintiated, which is probably how it came to be referred to as jargon in the first place.

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

It makes perfect sense to me, and I can see how both definitions could apply at the same time. Let's say that you're standing there while I talk with another nurse about my recent myocardial infarction caused by atheroma near an anastomoses, you might not get the full intent, whereas the nurse would.

Conversely, if you had a discussion with another aerospace engineer near me, I might only get the very broadest gist of what you were talking about... and maybe not even that.

[raventhourne.livejournal.com]

True but one wonders when the dual usage started. I'll have to check the OED.

[callas-and-ivy.livejournal.com]

oooh, I love this topic. Kindergarten being a double plural for child makes me laugh because it's just so appropriate.

Language is a very fluid thing.

[raventhourne.livejournal.com]

It is...especially when you read classic literature and you have to think or even look up the meaning of a word you know to see what they probably had it mean then.

English isn't like French who have the language police so the meaning and pronunciation don't change in their language.