Re: Improper Terminology

Subject: Re: Improper Terminology
From: "Wittel, Teresa J." <WITTTJ -at- NCSLINK -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 15:48:00 -0700

I abhor changes in the language - don't you? I mean - let's keep
everything the same and no one will ever be confused or offended again!
Fairies will always be tiny mythical winged creatures, gay will always
mean happy, abort will simply mean stop and the termination would always
mean the end. Master/slave would be an order-giver/order-taker and
there would never be negative associations. Blah-Blah-Blah! As-if!

In the real world, words carry many connotations. Some are positive,
some are neutral and some are negative. Duh! Personally, I hate tube
ends being called nipples or female and male connections. I'll get over
it! I like Mike Huber's comment that certain words are "expensive" and
should be used sparingly, as appropriate.

All writers know that personal opinions can be expressed in word choice.
I spent HOURS in some english class, analyzing what was meant by some
great author's word choices. Sheesh - if I only knew then, what I'm
being told now. I could have just turned in my paper with the comment
that the words were chosen simply for convenience and didn't really MEAN
anything!

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