Jargon is the specialized
terminology
Terminology is a group of specialized words and respective meanings in a particular field, and also the study of such terms and their use; the latter meaning is also known as terminology science. A ''term'' is a word, compound word, or multi-wor ...
associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular
communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The context is usually a particular occupation (that is, a certain trade, profession,
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
or academic field), but any
ingroup
In sociology and social psychology, an in-group is a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member. By contrast, an out-group is a social group with which an individual does not identify. People may for example ide ...
can have jargon. The main trait that distinguishes jargon from the rest of a language is special vocabulary—including some words specific to it and often different
senses
A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the world through the detection of stimuli. (For example, in the human body, the brain which is part of the central nervous system rec ...
or meanings of words, that outgroups would tend to take in another sense—therefore misunderstanding that communication attempt. Jargon is sometimes understood as a form of technical
slang
Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-g ...
and then distinguished from the official terminology used in a particular field of activity.
The terms ''jargon'', ''slang,'' and ''
argot
A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.McArthur, T. (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) Oxford University Press It may also be called a cryptolect, argo ...
'' are not consistently differentiated in the literature; different authors interpret these concepts in varying ways. According to one definition, jargon differs from slang in being secretive in nature; according to another understanding, it is specifically associated with professional and technical circles. Some sources, however, treat these terms as synonymous. In Russian linguistics, jargon is classified as an expressive
form of language, while
secret languages are referred to as ''
argot
A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.McArthur, T. (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) Oxford University Press It may also be called a cryptolect, argo ...
s''. The use of jargon became more popular around the sixteenth century attracting persons from different career paths. This led to there being printed copies available on the various forms of jargon.
Specifics
Jargon is "the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group".
Most jargon is ''technical terminology'' (''technical terms''), involving ''terms of art'' or ''industry terms'', with particular meaning within a specific industry. A main driving force in the creation of technical jargon is precision and
efficiency of communication, when a discussion must easily range from general themes to specific, finely differentiated details without
circumlocution
Circumlocution (also called circumduction, circumvolution, periphrasis, kenning, or ambage) is the use of an unnecessarily large number of words to express an idea. It is sometimes necessary in communication (for example, to work around lexical ga ...
. Jargon enriches everyday vocabulary with meaningful content and can potentially become a
catchword
A catchword is a word placed at the foot of a handwritten or printed page that is meant to be bound along with other pages in a book. The word anticipates the first word of the following page. It was meant to help the bookbinder or printer make ...
.
While jargon allows greater efficiency in communication among those familiar with it, a side-effect is that it raises the threshold of comprehensibility for outsiders. This is usually accepted as an unavoidable
trade-off
A trade-off (or tradeoff) is a situational decision that involves diminishing or losing one quality, quantity, or property of a set or design in return for gains in other aspects. In simple terms, a tradeoff is where one thing increases, and anot ...
, but it may also be used as a means of
social exclusion
Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. It is used across discipline ...
(reinforcing
ingroup–outgroup barriers) or social aspiration (when introduced as a way of showing off). Some academics promote the use of jargon-free language, as an audience may be alienated or confused by the technical terminology, and thus lose track of a speaker or writer's broader and more important arguments.
Etymology
The French word is believed to have been derived from the Latin word , meaning "to chatter", which was used to describe
speech
Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses Phonetics, phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if ...
that the listener did not understand.
The word may also come from
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
meaning "chatter of birds".
Middle English also has the verb meaning "to chatter," or "twittering," deriving from Old French.
The first use of the word dates back to the usage of the word in
The Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''Masterpiece, ...
written by
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...
between 1387 and 1400. Chaucer referred to jargon as the utterance of birds or sounds resembling birds.
![The Canterbury tales of Geoffrey Chaucer - The three Rogues search in the woods for Death](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/The_Canterbury_tales_of_Geoffrey_Chaucer_-_The_three_Rogues_search_in_the_woods_for_Death.jpg)
In colonial history, jargon was seen as a device of communication to bridge the gap between two speakers who did not speak the same tongue. Jargon was synonymous with
pidgin in naming specific language usages. Jargon then began to have a negative connotation with lacking coherent grammar, or gibberish as it was seen as a "broken" language of many different languages with no full community to call their own. In the 1980s, linguists began restricting this usage of jargon to keep the word to more commonly define a technical or specialized language use.
Fields using the term
The term is used, often interchangeably, with the term
buzzword when examining
organizational culture. In linguistics, it is used to mean "specialist language," with the term also seen as closely related to
slang
Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-g ...
,
argot
A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.McArthur, T. (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) Oxford University Press It may also be called a cryptolect, argo ...
and
cant
Cant, CANT, canting, or canted may refer to:
Language
* Cant (language), a secret language
* Beurla Reagaird, a language of the Scottish Highland Travellers
* Scottish Cant, a language of the Scottish Lowland Travellers
* Shelta or the Cant, a la ...
. Various kinds of language peculiar to ingroups can be named across a
semantic field
In linguistics, a semantic field is a lexical set of words grouped semantically (by meaning) that refers to a specific subject.Howard Jackson, Etienne Zé Amvela, ''Words, Meaning, and Vocabulary'', Continuum, 2000, p14. The term is also used in ...
.
Slang
Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-g ...
can be either culture-wide or known only within a certain group or subculture.
Argot
A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.McArthur, T. (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) Oxford University Press It may also be called a cryptolect, argo ...
is slang or jargon
purposely used to obscure meaning to outsiders. Conversely, a
lingua franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
is used for the opposite effect, helping communicators to overcome unintelligibility, as are
pidgins and
creole language
A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...
s. For example, the
Chinook Jargon was a pidgin. Although technical jargon's primary purpose is to aid
technical communication
Technical communication is used to convey scientific, engineering, or other technical information. Individuals in a variety of contexts and with varied professional credentials engage in technical communication. Some individuals are designated as ...
, not to exclude outsiders by serving as an argot, it can have both effects at once and can provide a technical ingroup with
shibboleth
A shibboleth (; hbo, , šībbōleṯ) is any custom or tradition, usually a choice of phrasing or even a single word, that distinguishes one group of people from another. Shibboleths have been used throughout history in many societies as passwo ...
s. For example, medieval
guild
A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...
s could use this as one means of informal
protectionism
Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulatio ...
. On the other hand, jargon that once was obscure outside a small ingroup can become generally known over time. For example, the terms ''
bit
The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represente ...
,
byte
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
,'' and ''
hexadecimal
In mathematics and computing, the hexadecimal (also base-16 or simply hex) numeral system is a positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of 16. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using 10 symbols, hexa ...
'' (which are
terms from computing jargon) are now recognized by many people outside
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
.
Referenced
The philosopher
Étienne Bonnot de Condillac
Étienne Bonnot de Condillac (; ; 30 September 17142 August or 3 August 1780) was a French philosopher and epistemologist, who studied in such areas as psychology and the philosophy of the mind.
Biography
He was born at Grenoble into a legal ...
observed in 1782 that "every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas". As a rationalist member of the
Enlightenment, he continued: "It seems that one ought to begin by composing this language, but people begin by speaking and writing, and the language remains to be composed."
Industry term
"An industry term... is a type of technical terminology that has a particular meaning in a specific industry. It implies that a word or phrase is a typical one in a particular industry and people working in the respective industry or business will be familiar with and use the term."
Precise technical terms and their definitions are formally recognized, documented, and taught by educators in the field. Other terms are more colloquial, coined and used by practitioners in the field, and are similar to
slang
Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-g ...
. The boundaries between formal and slang jargon, as in general English, are quite fluid. This is especially true in the rapidly developing world of computers and networking. For instance, the term ''
firewall
Firewall may refer to:
* Firewall (computing), a technological barrier designed to prevent unauthorized or unwanted communications between computer networks or hosts
* Firewall (construction), a barrier inside a building, designed to limit the spr ...
'' (in the sense of a device used to filter network traffic) was at first technical slang. As these devices became more widespread and the term became widely understood, the word was adopted as formal terminology.
Technical terminology evolves due to the need for experts in a field to communicate with precision and brevity, but often has the effect of excluding those who are unfamiliar with the particular specialized language of the group. This can cause difficulties as, for example, when a patient is unable to follow the discussions of medical practitioners, and thus cannot understand his own condition and treatment. Differences in jargon also cause difficulties where professionals in related fields use different terms for the same phenomena.
Business Jargon
The use of jargon in the business world is a common occurrence. The use of jargon in business correspondence reached a high popularity between the late 1800's into the 1950's.
Jargon in business is most frequently used in modes of communication especially in business letters and changes as language evolves. Common phrases used in business jargon includes:
* As per
* Ditto
* Hereby
* Meet with your approval
* Oblige
* Please be advised
* Pursuant
* Undersigned
Medical Jargon
This is another common area that jargon is known to be found. Medicine is rich in scientific terminology that is used amongst medical professionals. However, these terms when used with patients or non medical professionals has caused issues. Most patients encounter medical jargon when referring to their diagnosis or when receiving or reading their medication.
Some of the most commonly used terms in medical jargon are:
* Ablation
* Biopsied
* Bromelin
* Hematoma
* Infarct
* Ketosis
* Papillary carcinoma
* Plantar fasciitis
* sciatica
* Vertebrae
On first glance many people do not understand what these terms mean and may panic when they see these scientific names being used in reference to their health. The argument as to whether medical jargon is a positive or negative attribute to a patients experience has evidence to support both sides. On one hand, as mentioned before these phrases can be overwhelming for some patients who may not understand the terminology. However, with the accessibility to the internet, it has been suggested that these terms can be used and easily researched for clarity.
In practice
Jargon may serve the purpose of a "gatekeeper" in conversation, signaling who is allowed into certain forms of conversation. Jargon may serve this function by dictating to which direction or depth a conversation about or within the context of a certain field or profession will go.
For example, a conversation between two professionals in which one person has little previous interaction or knowledge of the other person could go one of at least two possible ways. One of the professionals (who the other professional does not know) does not use, or does not correctly use the jargon of their respective field, and is little regarded or remembered beyond small talk or fairly insignificant in this conversation. Or, if the person does use particular jargon (showing their knowledge in the field to be legitimate, educated, or of particular significance) the other professional then opens the conversation up in an in-depth or professional manner.
Outside of conversation, jargon can become confusing in writing. When used in text, readers can become confused if there are terms used that require outside knowledge on the subject.
Positivity
Ethos
Ethos ( or ) is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology; and the balance between caution, and passion. The Greeks also used this word to refer to ...
is used to create an appeal to authority. It is one of three pillars of persuasion created by
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
to create a logical argument. Ethos uses credibility to back up arguments. It can indicate to the audience that a speaker is an insider with using specialized terms in the field to make an argument based on authority and credibility.
Jargon can be used to convey meaningful information and
discourse
Discourse is a generalization of the notion of a conversation to any form of communication. Discourse is a major topic in social theory, with work spanning fields such as sociology, anthropology, continental philosophy, and discourse analysis. ...
in a convenient way within communities. A subject expert may wish to avoid jargon when explaining something to a layperson. Jargon may help communicate contextual information optimally. For example, a football coach talking to their team or a doctor working with nurses.
Accessibility and criticism
With the rise of the
self-advocacy The term self-advocacy, which means speaking up for oneself and one's interests, is used as a name for civil rights movements and mutual aid networks for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The term arose in the broader civil ...
movement within the disability movement, "jargonized" language has been much objected to by advocates and self-advocates. Jargon is largely present in everyday language, in newspapers, government documents, and official forms. Several advocacy organizations work on influencing public agents to offer accessible information in different formats.
One accessible format that offers an alternative to jargonised language is "
easy read Easy read is a method of presenting written information to make it easier to understand for people with difficulty reading.
Easy read advocates sentences of no more than ten to fifteen words, with each sentence having just one idea and one verb. Ac ...
", which consists of a combination of plain English and images.
The criticism against jargon can be found in certain fields when responding to specific information. In a study done by analyzing 58 patients and 10
radiation therapists, they diagnosed and explained the treatment of a disease to a patient with the use of jargon. It was found that using jargon in the
medical field
A medical specialty is a branch of medical practice that is focused on a defined group of patients, diseases, skills, or philosophy. Examples include those branches of medicine that deal exclusively with children (paediatrics), cancer (oncology), ...
is not the best in communicating the terminology and concepts. Patients tend to be confused about what the treatments and risks were. There are resources that include online glossaries of technical jargon, also known as "jargon busters."
Examples
Many examples of jargon exist because of its use among specialists and subcultures alike. In the professional world, those who are in the business of filmmaking may use words like "vorkapich" to refer to a montage when talking to colleagues. In Rhetoric, rhetoricians use words like "arete" to refer to a person of power's character when speaking with one another.
*
Architectural terminology
*
Ballet terminology
Because ballet became formalized in France, a significant part of ballet terminology is in the French language.
A
À la seconde
() (Literally "to second") If a step is done "à la seconde," it is done to the side. 'Second position'. It can als ...
*
Binomial nomenclature
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
*
Blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vis ...
(Heraldic terminology)
*
Business jargon
*
Chemical nomenclature
*
Computing jargon
This glossary of computer hardware terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts related to computer hardware, i.e. the physical and structural components of computers, architectural issues, and peripheral devices.
A
...
*
Corporate jargon
Corporate jargon, variously known as corporate speak, corporate lingo, business speak, business jargon, management speak, workplace jargon, corporatese or commercialese, is the jargon often used in large corporations, bureaucracies, and similar wor ...
*
Cricket terminology
This is a general glossary of the terminology used in the sport of cricket. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Certain aspects of cricket terminology are explained in more detail in cr ...
*
Economics terminology that differs from common usage
In any technical subject, words commonly used in everyday life acquire very specific technical meanings, and confusion can arise when someone is uncertain of the intended meaning of a word. This article explains the differences in meaning between ...
*
Fencing terminology
*
Flag terminology
Flag terminology is the nomenclature, or system of terms, used in vexillology, the study of flags, to describe precisely the parts, patterns, and other attributes of flags and their display.
Flag types
...
*
Language of mathematics
The language of mathematics or mathematical language is an extension of the natural language (for example English) that is used in mathematics and in science for expressing results (scientific laws, theorems, proofs, logical deductions, etc) with ...
**
Mathematical jargon
*
Legal terms
The legal year, in English law as well as in other common law jurisdictions, is the calendar during which the judges sit in court. It is traditionally divided into periods called "terms".
Asia
Hong Kong
Hong Kong's legal year is marked as Cerem ...
*
Medical terminology
*
Musical terminology
*
Nautical terms (A-L)
*
Nautical terms (M-Z)
*
Padonkaffsky jargon
Padonkaffsky jargon (russian: язык падонкафф, ''yazyk padonkaff'') or Olbanian (, ''olbanskiy'') is a cant language developed by a subculture of Runet called padonki (russian: падонки). It started as an Internet slang languag ...
*
Poker terminology
*
Scientific terminology
Scientific terminology is the part of the language that is used by scientists in the context of their professional activities. While studying nature, scientists often encounter or create new material or immaterial objects and concepts and are comp ...
**
International scientific vocabulary
*
Wine tasting descriptors
The use of wine tasting descriptors allows the taster to qualitatively relate the aromas and flavors that the taster experiences and can be used in assessing the overall quality of wine. Wine writers differentiate wine tasters from casual e ...
See also
*
Academese
Academese is a term referring to unnecessary jargon associated with the field of academia, particularly common in academic writing in humanities, and is contrasted with plain language. The term is often but not always pejorative, and occasionally c ...
*
Bullshit
''Bullshit'' (also ''bullshite'' or ''bullcrap'') is a common English expletive which may be shortened to the euphemism ''bull'' or the initialism B.S. In British English, "bollocks" is a comparable expletive. It is mostly a slang term and a ...
*
Colloquialism
*
Cryptolect
A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.McArthur, T. (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) Oxford University Press It may also be called a cryptolect, argot ...
*
Eurodicautom Eurodicautom was the pioneering terminology database of the European Commission, created in 1975, initially for use by translators and other Commission staff. By 1980 it was consultable on line within the Commission. As the European Community grew i ...
*
Gibberish
*''
Idola fori
''Idola fori'' (singular ''Idolum fori''), sometimes translated as "Idols of the Market Place" or "Idols of the Forum", are a category of logical fallacy which results from the imperfect correspondences between the word definitions in human lang ...
''
*
Jargon File
The Jargon File is a glossary and usage dictionary of slang used by computer programmers. The original Jargon File was a collection of terms from technical cultures such as the MIT AI Lab, the Stanford AI Lab (SAIL) and others of the old ARPANET A ...
*
Legalese
Legal writing involves the analysis of fact patterns and presentation of arguments in documents such as legal memoranda and briefs. One form of legal writing involves drafting a balanced analysis of a legal problem or issue. Another form of legal ...
*
Lexigraf
*
Nomenclature
Nomenclature (, ) is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences. The principles of naming vary from the relatively informal naming conventions, conventions of everyday speech to the i ...
*
Orismology
Orismology is the study of the process and the products of definition, in practice, in praxis, and in theory. ''Orismology'' is particularly applicable to the analysis and the writing of stipulative, normative definitions that explain and delimit t ...
*
P convention
*
Phraseme
*
Pidgin
*
Polari
Polari () is a form of slang or cant used in Britain and Ireland by some actors, circus and fairground showmen, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals, sex workers and the gay subculture. There is some debate about its origi ...
*
Procedure word
*
Register (sociolinguistics)
In sociolinguistics, a register is a variety of language used for a particular purpose or in a particular communicative situation. For example, when speaking officially or in a public setting, an English speaker may be more likely to follow pre ...
*
Specification (technical standard)
A specification often refers to a set of documented requirements to be satisfied by a material, design, product, or service. A specification is often a type of technical standard.
There are different types of technical or engineering specificati ...
*
Technical standard
A technical standard is an established norm or requirement for a repeatable technical task which is applied to a common and repeated use of rules, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods, ...
*
Thieves' cant
Thieves' cant (also known as thieves' argot, rogues' cant, or peddler's French) is a cant, cryptolect, or argot which was formerly used by thieves, beggars, and hustlers of various kinds in Great Britain and to a lesser extent in other English- ...
*
Three-letter acronym
A three-letter acronym (TLA), or three-letter abbreviation, is an abbreviation consisting of three letters. These are usually the initial letters of the words of the phrase abbreviated, and are written in capital letters (upper case); three-lette ...
*
Variety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics, a variety, also called an isolect or lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, registers, styles, or other forms of language, as well as a standard variety.Meecham, M ...
References
Further reading
* Green, Jonathon. ''Dictionary of Jargon''. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987. .
* Nash, Walter. ''Jargon: Its Uses and Abuses''. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993. .
* Sonneveld, H., Loenning, K.: (1994): "Introducing terminology", in ''Terminology'', p. 1–6
* Wright, S. E.; Budin, G.: (1997): ''Handbook of Terminology Management, Volume 1: Basic Aspects of Terminology Management''. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 370 pp.
External links
The Jargon WikiA wiki based on The Jargon File.
Business JargonBusiness jargon and terminology
JargonismBusiness English dictionary for industry-specific jargon
{{Authority control
Linguistics terminology
Terminology