technical terminology in ordinary language

Victor aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Sun May 31 19:00:12 UTC 2009


There is no "their" there ;-)

Bill Palmer wrote:
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> Poster:       Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at BELLSOUTH.NET>
> Subject:      Re: technical terminology in ordinary language
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>
> those homophones are tricky little devils, n'est-ce pas?
>
> Bill
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Victor" <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Sent: Sunday, May 31, 2009 1:43 PM
> Subject: Re: technical terminology in ordinary language
>
>
>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Victor <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: technical terminology in ordinary language
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Hmm... Having hung around both lawyers and engineers, I can certainly
>> attest to *engineers* using "camshaft" as a rather sarcastic euphemism.
>> Don't know about mechanics... As for "dispositive" and "colorable",
>> they've been making their way into TV commentaries for some time now.
>> Still, I have hardly heard it in "everyday chatter" anywhere outside of
>> lawyer groups and academia. I suspect that most people who watch legal
>> analysis on FNC are unlikely to adopt these two in there normal usage.
>>
>>    VS-)
>>
>> Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>>
>>> Lee Beck on Facebook:
>>>
>>> Heard some lawyers throwing around the words "dispositive" and
>>> "colorable" in everyday chatter... Imagining how they would react if a
>>> mechanic used the word "camshaft" in a metaphoric way...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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