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Misuse of words

Misuse of words

Misuse of words

(OP)
Why does my boss (a microbiologist), when he is trying to make out that he is familiar with engineering say "We should add a few milli-tesla to the length (or whatever)" when he means 'add few micron or inches or whatever)? He then looks at me astounded when I ask what magnetism has got to do with it.
Is he a plonker or what?
Is a plonker an engineering definition of an idiot?

RE: Misuse of words

Sounds like a guy who wants you to believe he knows something, but in reality he doesn't know what he's talking about.  

Apparantely it's an Acronym, but I still don't see where the "ER" comes from.
PLONKER = Person with Little Or No Knowledge  (Dictionary.com)

Nice name "jeff" with a "G".  I married to a Geoff.  Not a very common name in the US.  He was named after Geoffery Chaucer(spelling?).

RE: Misuse of words

geoffthehammer,

   I do not remember being taught the use of the word "plonker" while I was in college.  It does not appear in my Concise Oxford Dictionary.  The word "plonk" appears, defining cheap  or inferior wine.

  Microbiologists do need to know stuff.  They cannot be total idiots.  Are you sure your boss isn't just being funny?

                       JHG

RE: Misuse of words

Apparently, "fail" is misued...

Quote (Retuers.com):

LONDON (Reuters) - The word "fail" should be banned from use in British classrooms and replaced with the phrase "deferred success" to avoid demoralizing pupils, a group of teachers has proposed.

Members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) argue that telling pupils they have failed can put them off learning for life.

A spokesman for the group said it wanted to avoid labeling children. "We recognize that children do not necessarily achieve success first time," he said.

"But I recognize that we can't just strike a word from the dictionary," he said.

The PAT said it would debate the proposal at a conference next week.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: Misuse of words

drawoh:
in my Concise Oxford dictionary (tenth edition, revised), a plonker is defined as 'a foolish or inept person' (also a part of a man's atonomy. You ought to buy a newer version.


I used to have an MD who claimed that things could be measured absolute accuracy!

RE: Misuse of words

absolute ? ... as in the mathematical context ?

RE: Misuse of words

Perhaps the word "fail" is to be avoided because the real "failure" is not the student but the teacher.

How many such teachers will console themselves that the "deferred success" is ultimately down to their efforts?

Perhaps they should worry about teaching standards and not about pseudo-psychology.

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

RE: Misuse of words

Not using the word "fail" for that situation is about as dumb as the US state that legislated the number "pi" to be exactly 3.14 because it was too hard for students to understand or remember more decimal places.  

I would hope that the microtesla was a joke, lol, but you never know.  Some seem to think that if they can through around a few words they can pass themselves off as something they are not. Hopefully the only ones fooled are those who know even less.

RE: Misuse of words

Appearently, in the British school system, failure is NOT an option. But "deferred success" ?

How about WTF ? Not the acronym but the phrase stands for. In automotive engineering I hear/use this phrase alot. Those three words together make no sense whatsoever. Yet everyone within earshot knows exactly what you mean when you say it.

*Without data, you're just another person with an opinion.*

Hydroformer

RE: Misuse of words

WTF or WTH is the beginning of a phrase, with an interjection.

"What is going on?"
"What the hell is going on?"
"What the hell...?"
or even "What the..."

Hg

Eng-Tips guidelines:  FAQ731-376

RE: Misuse of words

"Perhaps the word "fail" is to be avoided because the real "failure" is not the student but the teacher."

I beg to differ.

One of my college instructors told us something which had nothing to do with the subject matter, but which has stuck with me to this day. He said, "This is an institution of higher learning, not an institution of higher teaching. It does not exist as a place for me to teach, but as a place for you to learn."

That breif lecture gave me a whole different perspective on personal responsibility.

I remember it often these days, as I defer success, one day at a time...

RE: Misuse of words

I welcome the new qualification of Deferred Success and look forward to using the acronym in my new qualification of Nobel Prize Winner (DS)

corus

RE: Misuse of words

"This is an institution of higher learning, not an institution of higher teaching. It does not exist as a place for me to teach, but as a place for you to learn."

Couldn't agree more. We're not all equal. Lots of people will fail to understand the general theory of relativity even after a life long study. Failure is something you have to learn to live with. Taking it out of the dictionary will not solve the problem. "Deferred success" - now THAT's language abuse.

RE: Misuse of words

Deferred success...

Let's congratulate them on their deferred marriage, deferred children, deferred career and deferred retirement.

*Without data, you're just another person with an opinion.*

Hydroformer

RE: Misuse of words

By using the term "deferred" I suppose they are hoping that sooner or later they will find "success"... all is not lost.  

What ever happened to the phrase "success-challenged"?  I remember when the whole political-correctness thing started, adding "-challenged" to the end of other words was a nice way of saying something bad.

height-challenged
hygene-challenged
logic-challenged

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: Misuse of words

I'm going to go out on a limb and say learning course material is not the most important part of attending grade school.  Of even greater importance is character development.  Getting along with others, competition, and everything else you gained from gym class.  

I gained every bit of knowledge I need to succeed (graduating with distinction)in EE while at the university.  However, when I got a D+ in electromagnetism I was extremely disappointed with myself but, instead of giving up I retook the course and got an A.

That type of character doesn't come from being told failure is acceptable.

RE: Misuse of words

  Quite a few years ago, I was administering a UNIX network of CAD stations, and we were investigating network computers.  I was told by the vendor that their new computers were "an order of magnitude" faster than the old ones.  Fortunately for the vendor (and probably for us too) I treated this as hyperbole.  

  I remember remarking to my boss that I wasn't sure they understood what "an order of magnitude" means.

                         JHG

RE: Misuse of words

Some maxims ought to be restored to general use:

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

Failure can be a result of poor teaching skills; or not.  It doesn't help that in the States, at least, more and more school systems are run by administrations staffed by educational idiots, whose main interest is in promoting themselves, at the expense (literally) of the teachers and especially the students.  Teachers are undermined by this, and are denied the rights and responsibilities to conduct their classes in a way that enables teaching, yet they are expected to turn out bright, innovative, creative citizens into the world.  Some manage to do so, but not because of any help from their bosses.

In my opinion, much of the failure in the education system stems from a denial by adults of children's capacity to learn, discern, and make remarkable judgments, given the opportunity.  Where 200 or 300 years ago, a student was given Greek and the classics to learn, today's student is lucky if he is taught basic sentence structure in English.

Well, I'd better not get on that bandwagon, or I'll be here all day!

RE: Misuse of words

I believe failure of children in grade school rests solely upon the shoulders of the parents.  But this is off-topic.

I had a manager once that always used the word "caveat" in the context of thinking the word meant "option."  I could always see a few grins around the conference table when this happened, but no one ever bothered to tell him.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: Misuse of words

A friend that I work with told me of a former coworker of his who like to use the phrase

"The biggest majority" when he really just meant a majority that was somewhere greater than just 50%+1.

The biggest majority would be all - 1.

Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas

"All the world is a Spring"

All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.

RE: Misuse of words

"I believe failure of children in grade school rests solely upon the shoulders of the parents.  But this is off-topic."

Watch this--I'll tie the two topics back together again.

A number of years ago, I was a member of a citizen's "Facility Advisory Commitee" that was brought together to review the local school board's proposed renovation and modernization program. The board brought in a person to act as a facilitator for the commitee. He was employed by some sort of public policy foundation, and held one (or perhaps several), postgraduate degrees. In general, he did a credible job, but he repeatedly misused a word. "The onerous is on the school board to do something...", he said. The first time, I thought I'd mis-heard, but over the course of six meetings he must've made the same mistake ten times.

The onus may have been onerous, but c'mon. "Onerous" even sounds like an adjective, not a noun!

RE: Misuse of words

I'm going to try to persuade my bank manager that my account is actually in "deferred credit", and thus I shouldn't have to pay any overdraft fees.
It's a very simple concept to grasp.
After all, as I heard someone say the other day: "It's not rocket surgery."

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go past." Douglas Adams

RE: Misuse of words

Rocket surgery, nice!

We had an office worker that was from somewhere in South America (can't remember where), she once said, "It's not model science."  It threw everyone off, as we were talking about a solid model.  Finally after a bit of explaining, she realized that she meant to say "rocket science", even though her brain was thinking "model rockets" and the other came out of her mouth.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: Misuse of words

Rocket Surgery, love it !!
I'll be using that one today.

*Without data, you're just another person with an opinion.*

Hydroformer

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