Profpointy
Legendary Member
Apart from management bullshit words, my own pet hates are
"reaching a crescendo" - as anyone who knows the slightest bit about music would confirm, a "crescendo" is a more or less gradual increase in volume. It does not mean "the loud bit" nor "the exciting bit"
"quantum leap" - this is the smallest possible change in, say, energy of an electron. OK granted it's a big deal compared to classical physics where continuous change was "allowed" but I really don't get excited (see what I did there) by the smallest possible improvement of a computer system
"begging the question" means a circular argument rather than "this is the important question" Sadly this is a lost cause but I still hate it.
And a rather charming addition to the language : a "concertation" meeting. This is a kind of summary session to bring previous work to a conclusion, by, I assume, a concerted effort. The word originated in international telecoms committees who work out the standards for GSM phones and so on. The working language is usually English, as it's the most common second language. On one working group there were no native English speakers and somehow they decided they needed a "concertation meeting" to confirm the final draft. Later an actual British person joined the group and had to point out "concertation" isn't a real word ... it is now and has become part of ETSI (the European telecomms standards body) official language
"reaching a crescendo" - as anyone who knows the slightest bit about music would confirm, a "crescendo" is a more or less gradual increase in volume. It does not mean "the loud bit" nor "the exciting bit"
"quantum leap" - this is the smallest possible change in, say, energy of an electron. OK granted it's a big deal compared to classical physics where continuous change was "allowed" but I really don't get excited (see what I did there) by the smallest possible improvement of a computer system
"begging the question" means a circular argument rather than "this is the important question" Sadly this is a lost cause but I still hate it.
And a rather charming addition to the language : a "concertation" meeting. This is a kind of summary session to bring previous work to a conclusion, by, I assume, a concerted effort. The word originated in international telecoms committees who work out the standards for GSM phones and so on. The working language is usually English, as it's the most common second language. On one working group there were no native English speakers and somehow they decided they needed a "concertation meeting" to confirm the final draft. Later an actual British person joined the group and had to point out "concertation" isn't a real word ... it is now and has become part of ETSI (the European telecomms standards body) official language
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