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Slang Terminology


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From:  Robert W. Stephens [SMTP:rwstephens-at-headwaters-dot-com]
Sent:  Wednesday, March 04, 1998 10:53 AM
To:  Tesla List
Subject:  Re: Slang Terminology

> From:  Thomas McGahee [SMTP:tom_mcgahee-at-sigmais-dot-com]
> Sent:  Sunday, March 01, 1998 5:18 AM
> To:  tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Subject:  Slang Terminology

Tom McGahee wrote:
> 
> Fellow coilers,
> Every profession has its own slang....

Tom, All,

Exactly!  My point however is simply one born of respect and a wish 
to avoid confusion. New professions that spring up should invent their own 
slang terminology and not do a cheap and lazy rip-off of someone 
else's time honoured phrase or achronym that has been in general use for longer
than their own newbie occupation, and which is commonly understood to mean
something entirely different than the new use.

For example, and I've touched on this particular one in the past.  
The Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning trade had no 
justification in stealing the acronym HVAC which means High Voltage 
Alternating Current.  After all which came along first? There 
certainly was High Voltage Alternating Current  before there was 
a trade which installed electric compressors and fans which ran off 
the stuff!  So what is HVDC therefore supposed to mean (he asks with
tongue in cheek), 'Heating, Ventilating and Duct Cleaning'?

Here's a beauty.  In Canada we have had a Federal testing laboratory 
called the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) for ever. This is our 
version of the American ouitfit called Underwriters Laboratories 
(UL). When someone says CSA, everyone immediately thinks of this
organization.  Recently our stupid government wanted to play in space 
and formed an organization to train space cadets for possible 
hitchhiking on US shuttle missions.  Guess what they called it...the 
CSA, Canadian Space Agency.  Talk about a bunch of weak minds.  Then 
there is another group of old people that like to travel frequently 
to Florida to escape Canadian winters.  They call themselves the 
CSA, (how clever!) for the Canadian Snowbirds Association.  Gee, I'm 
looking at a power cord here in my hand for a computer and according 
to the sticker on it it seems to have been approved by a group of old people 
who like to vacation in Florida.  Can I trust it to be safe?  Hey, if 
these old farts, whos'e acronym is boldly embazoned on this cord are running off
to another country, far away from this power cord, maybe it isn't so 
safe?

If one wants to describe a transformer, or an xfmer as a 'tranny' then 
I think it reasonable for society to expect that one be consistent and refer to
transformer oil as 'tranny fluid'.  Do you see the obvious problem 
in that?  Now recognize that society owns previous
copyright to that particular term as a description for the fluid with which
vehicular transmissions are filled.  Use of the term 'tranny' in this 
context fails the continuity test.

If anyone ever refers to Esso Hi-Volt as 'tranny fluid' in my presence they'd
better be kidding!

Ripping off someone else's copyright or trademark is clearly defined 
as an illegal act.  Ripping off someone else's slang, if already 
firmly entrenched in the public record, is almost as bad, but luckily 
for some on this list, not punishable by law.

Robert W. Stephens
Director
Lindsay Scientific Co.
RR1 Shelburne, ON Canada L0N-1S5
Tel: 1-519-925-1771   Fax: 
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