popularized technicalities
- popularized technicalities
popularized technicalities
This was Fowler's term (1926) for technical terms that are adopted into general use, and the one he named as being then most in vogue was
acid test. Some popularizations (e.g.
leading question) involve a change in meaning and are therefore usually more controversial. A range of examples from various domains, some known to Fowler and others more recent, are given in the table below.
word / technical domain / date of popularized use
allergy / medicine / mid-20c
asset / law / 17c
chain reaction / chemistry / mid-20c
chronic / medicine / 19c
clone / genetics / late 20c
complex / psychology / early 20c
devil's advocate / religion / 19c
feedback / physics / mid-20c
fixation / psychology / early 20c
function / mathematics / 18c
interface / physics and mathematics / mid-20c
leading question / law / 20c
multitasking / computing / mid-20c
nth degree / mathematics / 19c
parameter / mathematics / early 20c
persona / literary criticism / early 20c
protagonist / drama / mid-20c
quantum leap or jump / physics / mid-20c
syndrome / medicine / mid-20c
Modern English usage.
2014.
Look at other dictionaries:
vogue words — In its meaning ‘popular use or currency’, vogue dates from the 17c, but the expression vogue word (or term) did not come into general use until the 20c. Fowler, who was one of the first to use the term, defined it as a word that ‘emerges from… … Modern English usage
acid test — When Fowler was preparing the first edition of Modern English Usage, he remarked that acid test was undoubtedly the popularized technical term ‘most in vogue at the moment of writing (1920)’. In scientific use it meant the use of nitric acid to… … Modern English usage
gambit — in its generalized meaning ‘an opening move in a conversation, meeting, set of negotiations, etc.’, is a technical term taken from chess (see popularized technicalities), where the meaning is ‘an opening in which a player sacrifices a piece or… … Modern English usage
quantum leap — and the older form quantum jump, meaning ‘a sudden large increase’, are one of the more striking examples of modern popularized technicalities … Modern English usage
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