The Detestability of Buzzwords

Every field of endeavor has its "jargon," or terminology. The outsider may find that terminology intimidating and annoying, and be skeptical about its usefulness, but few would deny that a good deal of it, maybe much of it, serves the object of permitting quick, concise, previse reference to concepts that however abstruse and unimportant they may seem to the layperson they do mean something quite basic and important to the experts, be it "axon," or "declension," or "deflator."

However, at least some of the time--maybe much of the time--a good deal of the skepticism is warranted, not least because of that category of terminology which is known as the "buzzword."

What makes a buzzword a buzzword, rather than simply a piece of entirely valid jargon? I would say that it is a matter of the term's pervasiveness being in inverse proportion to its actual usefulness. The word seems to be everywhere--and at the same time illuminates absolutely nothing. Sometimes this is because a useful term has been pressed into inappropriate service, used to mean too many things, and at others because someone has dressed up banality or vacuity in sophisticated-sounding verbiage--perhaps unwittingly, perhaps deliberately to intimidate or impress--after which others, intimidated and impressed, pick up the term and use it after them--perhaps unwittingly, perhaps deliberately--with the result described here.

In the process the very sound of the word gets to be like nails on a chalkboard for those who understand exactly what the term means (and doesn't), the sort of abuse that is going on, and what idiots those who are spreading the term around so much are being.

As George Carlin, one of the great satirists of such idiocies, made clear, the business world is full of such nonsense, tearing apart such pieces of foolishness as "impacted" and "interface" in his famous monologue on "Offensive Language."

Had the monologue come later it would likely have also addressed that wearisome buzzword that just won't go away, "INNOVATION!"