Is corporate jargon 'a value add'? | JARGON ETYMOLOGY

Time to bust some jargon in another Words Unravelled. In this episode, Rob and Jess wade their way through the sea of business speak and legalese.

🦍Which joke created the "800-pound gorilla"?
🪶Is all jargon a modern invention?
🏛️What do legal Latin phrases literally mean?

These questions answered and many more in another wordy nerdy episode of Words Unravelled.

or search for "Words Unravelled" wherever you get your podcasts.

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#etymology #wordfacts #English

[surkh]

As my CogSci professor used to say "You can verb anything.... as long as you context it right"

[thedogfather]

I once had a senior manager who used to say in meetings "perhaps you could talk to your report"? I responded by saying "hello report, youre a fine looking collection of paper and ink". He stopped using that particular silly management course phrase.

[NathanGrajek]

28:52 When I first heard the term "swag" I was told it stood for "stuff we all get" - I obviously now know that this is a backronym.

[jasonremy]

I'm a teacher. Our professional development and staff meetings is filled with what we call "edubabble". It's rampant in the field.

[aidanb.c.]

I recently started a new job for a social service non-profit and the biggest hurdle has been trying to navigate the combination of government and social work jargon and the incessant use of never-defined acronyms.

[schmittelt]

I've been in grocery stores where frozen TV dinners were labeled as "Meal Solutions"
I think I had an allergic reaction to that one.

[biasedactions]

I would like to 'throw my hat into the ring' in support of an episode (or even a segment, if it would be too dense for a full episode) about linguistic jargon. As someone from a more academically lingusitic environment, I'm really enjoying the podcast and seeing everyone in the comments so excited about language!

[joegoss]

Never use "utilize" when you can utilize "use."

[napoleonfeanor]

I only want a stakeholder when fighting vampires

Legal jargon deserves its own episode

[samneis]

I had a boss who kept saying "synergy" two or three times in every meeting for about a month. Then one Monday he came in and said "oh my god I just saw that SNL skit "[i think it was a song by Andy Samberg] "where they make fun of bosses who say 'promote synergy'. Why didn't you guys tell me it wasn't cool?" He never said it again.

[eivindkaisen]

With Rob and Jess being jargonauts, this video must be an example of jargonautics.

[samgraham]

It's great to see two people having so much fun with words!

[aknopf]

8:25
"Nouns, that we have *verbed* "
Just perfect! * chef's kiss *

That reminds me of the german word "Verungung". In german, we have a construct for making verbs into nouns by adding the suffix "-ung", similar to "-ing" in english. But because this is a real pandemic in german (there are some texts without a proper verb to be seen), we invented the somewhat ironic word of "Verungung". A possible translation would be "Overinging", i guess.
"The overinging in recent years, brought a real reducing of understanding of written texts in the context of buisnissing to the point where ridiculing the authoring of such texts had increased occurings." :-P

[nuclearmedicineman]

Execution probably came to coporatese from programming. You execute code, from the original "carry out" meaning of the word. An executor carries out a death sentence with an axe, a computer carries out a set of instructions with an .exe

[jbejaran]

Related to "vertical" is the jargony term "silo" or "siloed" referring to an organization where the various "verticals" don't communicate or cooperate very well. It's a rather evocative term as corporate jargon goes.

[CheeseWyrm]

Another jarring example of corporate jargon is the verb-use of the noun: ACTION.
"OK Bob, can you action that task for us please?"
"So do you think that idea is actionable?"

[teillumin]

Jess and Rob what a brilliant edition. I have had a personal list of phrases, words and jargon that is in common parlance that I simply entitle “Excresences of the English language”. It contains most if not all of what you discussed but my absolute personal favourite (sic) number one hated phrase is “Going Forward” especially when it’s just randomly tacked on to the end of a sentence 😡.

[SurinaSlackArt]

Now that I've fully binged every episode, I'm glad to be fully caught up! This is one of my new favorite YouTube series ever!

[phforNZ]

My favourite job title I've ever seen is "mortality coordinator" - from a mortuary.

[floraidh]

Weird Al’s song “Mission Statement” keeps playing in my head during this episode “We must all efficiently operationalize our strategies…”