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Humpty Dumpty | 65 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Humpty Dumpty
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, March 14 2013 @ 06:33 AM EDT

To continue the Carroll quote:

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."

Take the word 'hacker', for example. There is a widespread idea that it is used for bad actors; which is not the original usage. Simply giving in to this idea is allowing the change in meaning to be the master; fighting back is an attempt to establish mastery over the word. This may or may not be successful.

The question isn't whether the new usage or the old usage is correct. The question is what one means to communicate, and whether one will simply accept the meaning as understood by a given hypothetical person, or whether one will (in the manner of Humpty Dumpty) attempt to force the word to mean what one thinks it should mean.

The question, as Humpty says, is which is to be master - the word, or the speaker.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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