Agnostic (non-theological)

[Victor Steinbok]

If they just noticed that this meaning is "creeping into the vocabulary
of American business people over the past year" they are very late to
the party. The use "I am agnostic on this issue" to mean "I don't
care/am indifferent" has been in normal "intellectual" use at least
since I was in college in the 1980s. Perhaps the business audience is
late in discovering this usage, but it certainly has not happened just
over the past two years.

     VS-)

On 12/6/2010 4:15 PM, Federico Escobar wrote:
> ... The word even drew this criticism from
> a Houston newspaper just last year (it's stored in the COCA): "This is an
> incorrect use of the word 'agnostic' that I have noted creeping into the
> vocabulary of American business people over the past year or so. Especially
> among individuals in the financial services industry, the word is being used
> to mean 'indifferent,' as I think Immelt intended it to mean in his usage.
> In business circles today, the word has become one of those buzz words that
> people like to use."

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