Language – The Meanings of Words – Nomenclature

Summary:

If language is the glue that binds a nation’s people together, the meaning of those words is crucial to that bond. If the meaning of words is not fixed there is no hope for those utilizing them will successfully communicate with others.

It is important to verify your understanding of facts and terms before applying them with authority. Early in my radio hosting career, I endured a frustrating debate with a guest. At the end of the rather annoying debate, while on a commercial break, I asked the guest a question. The answer that he gave revealed that the guest did not know the meaning of the term which he took such an issue with. Ever since the expansion of people’s vocabularies has been a pet project of mine. I have tried to inspire people to verify the meaning of the terms that they believe they know, especially if they use them regularly with authority. My grandfather played a “game” with me every night before I left their house or before bed. He would have me randomly flip open the pages of his gigantic marble white leather-bound Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary. Then I would put my finger on a page. The word on which I placed my finger, randomly, would be our new word. We would put the new word to use as much as possible until our next meeting.

Detail:

My leather-bound, 1975 edition of, the New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language provided the true definitions of the following words.

Nomenclature – “A system of names; the vocabulary of names or technical terms which are appropriated to a science, art, or other fields.”

Merriam-Webster Online – “a word or combination of words by which a person or thing is regularly known.”

While preparing for a radio show guest who I was interviewing next, I was performing my due diligence and fact-checking my points and lines of questioning. Part of the process was verifying proper nomenclature. It is far better to find an error in preparation than to embarrass yourself in front of a large audience. One of the terms was inflation. I searched it on Google. 96,300,000 results were found for the definition.

 

Investopedia said that inflation meant –

“Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services is rising and, consequently, the purchasing power of currency is falling. Central banks attempt to limit inflation — and avoid deflation — in order to keep the economy running smoothly.”

Google said –

“What are the main causes of inflation?
Causes of Inflation

The Money Supply. Inflation is primarily caused by an increase in the money supply that outpaces economic growth. ...
The National Debt. ...
Demand-Pull Effect. ...
Cost-Push Effect. ...
Exchange Rates.”

Economicshelp.org said –

“Inflation is basically a rise in prices.

A more exact definition of inflation is a situation of a sustained increase in the general price level in an economy. Inflation means an increase in the cost of living as the price of goods and services rise.”

The list went on and on.

Dictionary.com said –

“1 ·  Economics. a persistent, substantial rise in the general level of prices related to an increase in the volume of money and resulting in the loss of value of a currency (opposed to deflation).”

Then I went to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary online (m-w.com). they said –

“2: a continuing rise in the general price level usually attributed to an increase in the volume of money and credit relative to available goods and services “

Then I took out my leather-bound edition of the New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language

“an expansion of the volume of currency and bank credit, out of proportion to available goods and services, and resulting in a considerable and prolonged rise in prices, wages, and other costs.” Copyright 1975.

Rhetorically, do you think that the omission of the fact that inflation is caused by the action of a government printing more currency than it can back was an oversight? There cannot possibly be that many people in senior-level positions of the organizations positing the definition of inflation who don’t know that the government is its root cause. Therein lies the danger. If you were born after 1980 and taught in a public school in the USA you will not know that fact. I debated that fact with a bank manager at my bank. He asserted his MBA in finance telling me that inflation was a result of the financial imbalance of “many factors”. NO, NO, NO. It is the government printing currency that is backed by nothing, fiat currency, monopoly money!!! Words matter, understanding their meaning is crucial, not “I think” based on what you think it is by context.

The search for such a common term yielded a much more important lesson than its definition; you cannot depend upon electronic sources of information. Certainly, online sources cannot be trusted alone. Furthermore, even if you find hundreds of online sources that validate each other, that is no guarantee that they are correct. The amount of plagiarism, mimicry, and downright theft of content online is mindboggling.

Ray Bradbury had no idea when he wrote Fahrenheit 451 of the technological advances that were soon to come. The book is one of my favorites, everyone should read it. In an interview at Comic-Con he said that his inspiration was, “as a library person he was appalled by the images of Hitler burning books.”: That was the seed of the novel. Who would have known that the destruction of thought, stored knowledge, wisdom, and language would be affected by technology? The government does not have to burn the books because people throw them in the trash on their own volition. People don’t want books, they are cumbersome and expensive.

Conclusion:

When powerful publishers and electronic resources fail to preserve the meaning and context of the language WE MUST DO SO FOR OURSELVES. Unfortunately, there is a problem electronic documents are simple to erase, redact, and alter. Those alterations leave no trace of what was. In an instant change can be made without a trace of the preceding version. I have seen changes and deletions of entire videos, stories, words, etc. They were completely “disappeared.” I have told everyone that I know to buy several 1960’s hardcover dictionaries. Encyclopedias are good too. Ancient history does not change, but the way they present it does. Hard copies are indelible.

If you see a news article online and it is important, print a copy to the printer or better yet to pdf for safekeeping. The Las Vegas mass shooting incident was a powerful example. If you had saved the videos posted by witnesses on the street, moments after, you would have seen how they were all systematically removed over the next 24 hours. There are many free programs that allow you to print to pdf. Checkout Primo PDF or FoxIt Phantom PDF Printer, they are my favorites. When you go to print and article, you chose the program to print to PDF as the printer, name the file, and print. Voila you have hardcopy saved.