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The English Language.

Brummie a long time ago said:
Challenge not accepted.

Most of your list has passed between my ears, usually without stopping, but wokander ? Sounds like a type of seabird.

Andrew.
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Gas lighting, synergy and on boarding are pretty common. Gaslighting is a mainstay unfortunately of most so news programs with a bias which most have. Synergy and on boarding are key parts of the corporate world globally.
The other stuff is I believe an advanced version of Gaslighting or some of it!
 
A meme is a virally transmitted image embellished with text.

synergy,the combined power of a group of things when they are working together that is greater than the total power achieved by each working separately:

What is onboarding?​

At its core, onboarding is the process by which a new employee is initiated into a company or organization. But any good HR professional knows there’s a bit more to it than that. Onboarding starts during the recruitment and hiring process, and can stretch over the course of the individual’s first year.

Successful onboarding provides key information and important context for the employee in areas such as their specific role, company policies, company culture, and business processes and systems.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
So its not where someone is put head first in a bath to find out what they know ?
Andrew.
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The on boarding for a major US corporation usually takes at least a week Sometimes longer. You get your computer how it works, the companies operating system, expense reports etc. At Cummins for example they have about 40,000 employees and everyone has the same basic computer unless you are running CAD or some financial system. All the links are built in as is MS Office etc. when your finished on boarding you knew everything you need to know about how and why the company works. Ready to go to work!
 
I just knew I had seen it before (Ahem !).

WOKANDER MATS
"The present invention discloses a device and an optical liquid sensor for drug screening, and a method for using these. More particularly a device, an optical liquid sensor, and a method, for repeatable measurements of the effect of a test drug on a biological tissue sample are described."

Obviously.

Yes, I know where the door is, I will close it behind me.
Andrew.
 
Is offboarding where a person is so incompetent that they have to walk the plank. Can think of a few of those. Unfortunately they usually get a golden goodbye as well.
Thought wokhanded might be where an employer is so irritating that you hit him over the head with a wok
 
Smudger said:
The English language. All the fancy words in use today & i haven`t a clue what most of them mean....Gas lighting.. Meme... woke...wokander...synergy...onboarding? I`m pleased to say non of those words are used by forum members.
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Smudge, you tempt providence/fate !
 
I think textspeak is even worse. A barrier to comprehension, an unwanted diversion of one's attention from the subject and, to me at least, yet another reminder of how the world has left me far behind!

We mainly keep it out of the Forum (strictly speaking, it's against the rules) but u c it from time 2 time. Ugh!

Chris
 
Interesting article. I found it rather amusing to see it stated that Webster was originally (note I say originally) even more into change in language than Johnson, when it was Webster who pushed Americans into Aluminum, Sulfur, color, etc
 
Gaslighting is frequently used in the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/science...-manipulation-reality-coping-mechanisms-trump
I think they take the usage from the New York Times to describe typically a man manipulating a woman into undermining her own perception and memory of the situation, even believing she is mentally ill. The Ingrid Bergman film Gaslight https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036855/(1944) is the source. I'm just old enough to remember gaslighting in a friend of my mother's house, it is deceptive, like moonlight. I don't see it used much in the UK outside of the Guardian.
 
Anyone who uses the word gaslighting or woke is immediately dismissed by me as not worth listening to or reading anything they have to say.
 
Tinpot said:
Anyone who uses the word gaslighting or woke is immediately dismissed by me as not worth listening to or reading anything they have to say.
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Tinpot, The language of some younger people differs from the usage of older groups. I think the issue with 'gaslighting' is that it is a metaphorical usage and depends on knowledge of a particular film, so is unlikely to spread further than a metropolitan journalists. 'Woke' tends to be used as a term of abuse by self-styled cultural warriors on the political right. I tend to avoid public discussion of language, because many people simply moan about any usage other than their own and their age group which seems natural to them. But let's live in the spirit of diversity and toleration as the Games continue.
Derek
 
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Derek
The trouble is when people of different groups have completely different definitions of what a word or phrase means. Woke is probably one example, but one of the earliest was probably Gay. "With it" people seem to consider it desirable not to change language by natural development , but by deliberate forced change - if a word meaning, say "good", gets to be more generally understood by the population then it is time to change the used word to something else..
 
mikejee said:
Derek
The trouble is when people of different groups have completely different definitions of what a word or phrase means. Woke is probably one example, but one of the earliest was probably Gay. "With it" people seem to consider it desirable not to change language by natural development , but by deliberate forced change - if a word meaning, say "good", gets to be more generally understood by the population then it is time to change the used word to something else..
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Agreed, much like the word "sick" which has a completely meaning to most adults.

It was completely changed to mean "cool" by one of the XYZ or whichever younger generations wish to take credit".

Oops, I just did it myself (intentionally though).

The English language is already one of the most challenging to master, without it being messed up through inappropriate use as slang terms, for other meanings that make it as if a person is talking in riddles.
 
Tinpot said:
Anyone who uses the word gaslighting or woke is immediately dismissed by me as not worth listening to or reading anything they have to say.
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My reaction is not as polarised, but I do appreciate your point. I have to admit to a pre judgement against anything in that style, so they have to work harder to convince me.

Stokkie said:
The language of some younger people differs from the usage of older groups.
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Much the same as why it is harder to learn a foreign language the older one gets. The French I learned at school may be a foundation, but does not relate too well to current usage now. Listening to school children and students now, they might as well be talking a foreign language. (For me, they are).

However, when I was a nipper, my parents and other elders probably felt just the same way.

mikejee said:
but one of the earliest was probably Gay.
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When gay meant happily dancing through a field of flowers wearing a daisy chain, the 'bad' word was nice. As in "He's a nice boy". Consider also 'queer'.

As for slang and idiomatic speech, Argghhh.

Andrew.
 
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