this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2025
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I forget the exact quote, but one goes something like "the key to successful communication is an agreement on the definition of terms/words".
You can't discuss something if the word were using for it means different things to both of us. If I use dopehead to mean just an idiot and you use it to be someone who smokes weed excessively, we'll sound similar but then communication will break down.
So people do use more specific terms for more specific definitions when the other definitions don't fit, but I don't think the response should be "stop making new words."
That's a big point in 1984! It's basically the exact point where doublethink and doublespeak work.