DennisK wrote:Tinoran wrote:It's strange the way we use the same words with different meanings depending on location, or background, too. ...
A complaint of mine - never more than in the computer realm: Mouse, worm, etc... It's like we ran out of words; so we have to reuse the ones we already have. Why can't we just makeup a new word for those things that are new?
![Think :eusa-think:](./images/smilies/eusa/think.gif)
I get what you're saying, but when you have a completely new field (computers), people will tend to name things after something familiar and people will repeat what is easy. A mouse because the first ones looked like one to one of the Apple Sales people. A worm got the name because of what it does, similar with a virus and what it does to your computer, While I have actually seen the very first 'bug' (a fly that landed between two circuits and shorted them together) saved on a card in a museum.
The strange part to me is how the same words mean different things in different areas: 'Bar-B-Que' where I was raised is called 'grilling' where I am now, while 'smoking' where I grew up is 'Bar-B-Que' here and 'Grilling' at home is called 'broiling'... Why do the meanings drift so far in this age of travel and mass communications? Why aren't they coming closer together?