Jardon

Jargon 

The word “jargon” has up to five definitions depending on which dictionary you use. It can mean jibberish, vague language, or specific dialects of a language or several languages, but the most common definition will be addressed. That would be the language and vocabulary that is peculiar to certain people in a trade, profession, or other group.  

The word “jargon” comes from a 14th century word for “twittering of birds” with the root word “garg” which forms other words like “gurgle” or “gargle.” If you are not a member of a certain group, and they are talking and using jargon, it could sound like they were twittering since you wouldn’t understand what they were saying. Jargonauts, who study jargon, feel that it came about just to make communication easier within a group, and there was no deceit intended.  

Jargon is terminology which which is the technical vocabulary of a particular profession. Jargon, like many examples of slang, may be used to exclude non–group members from the conversation, but in general has the function of allowing its users to talk precisely about technical issues in a given field. It has been especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, or group. In other words, the term covers the language used by people who work in a particular area or who have a common interest. Much like slang it develops as a kind of short-hand, to quickly express ideas that are frequently discussed between members of a group. In many cases a standard term may be given a more precise or unique usage among practitioners of a field. In many cases this may cause a barrier to communication with those not familiar with the language of the field. Examples can be words related to the computer. RAM, Hard Disk Drive, CPU, Graphics Card and etc. are jargon as they are related to computers.  

Jargon Versus Slang

Slang is more informal and includes made-up words, words that have been changed and exaggerated words. Sometimes slang is considered to be nonsense or unrefined language. The original meaning of “slang” was “rowdy or insulting language.” It possibly came from the French word “langue” for “language.” 

Take the word “say.” It can be slang when used at the beginning of a sentence and would mean “tell me”, like “Say, what are you doing?”  Jargon is more prevalent with a certain group and can be quite technical. Here is one of the examples of jargon in medicine. A “bilateral probital hematoma” is jargon, and the slang expression of it is “black eye” or “shiner.”

Examples of Jargon

Sometimes people use jargon to appear more important or smarter than others or even to confuse people. This is because jargon is usually associated with the medical or legal profession. It can be used within sports or casual groups as well. 

Following are some examples of jargon in various groups.

In the medical field, “agonal” is a term to signify a major, negative change in a patient’s condition. BP means blood pressure, FX means fracture, and JT is a joint. Nothing by mouth is NPO, intramuscular is IM, and potassium is K.

Examples of business slang include: “Bang for the buck” is getting a lot for your money, “due diligence” is doing research before purchasing or investing in a business, and “sweat equity” is receiving equity or ownership in the business instead of a salary.

Police jargon would include “suspect” as a person whom the police think may have committed a crime, “10-4” means” OK”, or “got it”, “Code Eight” means an officer needs help immediately, “Code Eleven” means you are on the scene, and “FTP” means failure to pay a fine.

The military has its own jargon, too. TDY is temporary duty, AWOL is absent without leave, SQDN is a squadron, SAM is surface to air missile, PCS is permanent change of station, and LES is leave and earning statement.

Even politics has jargon that is used. Examples of jargon are “left wing” which refers to a liberal, progressive viewpoint, “getting on a soapbox” is making a speech in public, and “back benches” are non-executive members of the party.

Lastly, the internet is full of jargon. BTW is by the way, CYA is see you around, FAQ is frequently asked questions, HTH is hope this helps, and MOTD is message of the day 

Examples of Jargon Words

Below are some example of jargon used in different businesses, sometimes by people within the industry alone, and other times, by the general public.  
 

"Ahead in the count" If someone refers to your business as one that is "ahead in the count", you're doing very well. This is an example of baseball jargon that refers to when the pitcher - ahead in the count - has more strikes than balls against a batter. In the business world, to be ahead of the count means you have pulled out in front of your competitors and are doing well in your market. In order to stay ahead in the count, you may to continue doing what you're doing, but also re-evaluating ways to stay ahead of your competition.  

"Cookies" Some examples of jargon just don't always mean what you may think! This is one example. The term "cookies" is computer jargon. It refers to data placed on your computer from a web server that records the websites you visit, your passwords (if you so choose), your shopping cart preferences, and a record of your website preferences. How are cookies helpful to you? If you use the Internet regularly, cookies allow the websites to "know" you when you return. Pages can load faster, passwords can be remembered so you don't have to key them in each time, etc. Although cookies are not absolutely necessary, they are very helpful when it comes to operating efficiently on the Internet. 

"Get Your Ducks in a Row" Although this term originated from the use of short, rounded bowling pins years ago (called ducks), most people associate this example of jargon with a mother duck and her ducklings. Have you ever observed a mother duck and ducklings walking or swimming? They are all in a row! Examples of jargon are commonly drawn from every day life. To get your ducks in a row means you're organized - you've planned out the details of a project before starting. For example, let's say you've been chosen to pitch your company's new product to a prospect. In order to get your ducks in a row, you'll likely research the prospect's history, their target market, and how your product can reach their target market. When the presentation day arrives, you'll have everything ready to go and increase your chances that you know just what to say (your ducks in a row). 

"Connect Ear-to-Ear" Sometimes examples of jargon do mean what they say and this is one of those times. If you say to someone, "let's connect ear-to-ear on the details of this project", you are using a hip or cool bit of jargon to say, "let's discuss this project in more detail over the telephone".  

"Swot Analysis" Some of the most popular examples of jargon use acronyms (initials) to shorten what would otherwise be a very lengthy term. A SWOT analysis is a business term often used by business consultants. SWOT stands for:

•  Strengths - the positive attributes of a company that helps it compete in its marketplace

•  Weaknesses - internal challenges a business faces that makes it harder to compete and be profitable

•  Opportunities - external conditions (such as market forces) that can't be controlled by a business that make it easier to succeed

•  Threats - the opposite of opportunities - threats are external forces that make businesses in a market hard (or potentially hard) to be profitable.  

A SWOT analysis is a helpful tool to assist a business in "seeing reality" clearly. By better understanding its current position in a market, it can better determine what areas (its products, services, internal functions, etc.) to improve on, expand on and, in some cases, abandon.  

Here are some more examples of jargon word from various industries: 

NEWSPAPER JARGON Some examples of newspaper jargon words are "beat", "breakline",

1

budget ['bʌdʒɪt]

1. n

1) бюджет; финансовая  смета

2) запас;

a budget of news куча  новостей

3) уст. сумка  и её содержимое

2. v

1) предусматривать  в бюджете, ассигновать (for)

2) составлять  бюджет

3. a дешёвый

2

chaser

 

chaser

I ['tʃeɪsə] n

1) преследователь 

2) ав. истребитель

3) мор. морской  охотник

4) судовое орудие

5). глоток воды  и т. п. после спиртного; рюмка  ликёра после кофе

6) амер. разг. бабник

II ['tʃeɪsə] n

1) гравёр (по  металлу); чеканщик

2) тех. винторезная  гребёнка; винторезная плашка, резьбовой  резец

3) горн. Бегун 

3 flag

полигр. корректурный знак пропуска (в тексте) 

7) полигр. флаговый  заголовок (во всю ширину страницы) 

"byline", "chaser", "circulation", "cut", "dateline", "ears", "flag", "lead", "stringer", "strip", "teaser", and "zone".  

FOOTBALL JARGON Examples of football jargon are "audible", "blitz", "clipping", "down", "end zone", "goal line", "hand-off", "kickoff", "loose ball", "man-in-motion", "offside", "picked off", "recovery", "scrambling", "territory", and "touchdown".  

BASEBALL JARGON Examples of common baseball jargon words include: "advance a runner", "ahead in the count", "alley (or gap)", "appeal", "assist", "at bat", " "bad-ball hitter", "balk", "bases loaded", "bat", "big league", "bunt", "bush league", "caught looking", "changeup", "cheap run", "choke up", "cleanup hitter", "clutch hitter", "curve ball", "cut-off man", "dig it out", "double play", "extra bases", "fastball", "first ball hitter", "go-ahead run", "golfing", "good eye", "grand slam", "Hall of Fame", "hit by pitch", "home run", "insurance run", "loud out","make the pitcher work", "mit (baseball glove)", "MVP", "pickoff", "pinch hitter", "position", "power hitter", "rally", "relay", "sacrifice bunt", "sacrifice fly", "sent to the showers", "stayed alive", "stolen base", "strike zone", "take a pitch", "tea party", and "tipping pitches". 
 

BUSINESS JARGON Examples of business jargon words include: "10,000 foot view", "actionable", "axe", "back burner", "bait and switch", "ballpark", "bang for the buck", "batting average", "behind the eight ball", "best practice", "bean counter", "bearish", "brain dump", "bullish", "buzz", "change agent", "circular file", "core competency", "down and dirty", "downsize", "due diligence", "get your ducks in a row", "gofer", "golden handcuffs", "face time", "fall guy", "food chain", "free lunch", "game changer", "headcount", "hired guns", "in bed", "in the black", "in the loop", "in the red", "level the playing field", "leverage", "lost in the sauce", "low-ball", "low-hanging fruit", "micromanage", "mom and pop organization", "not invented here", "org chart", "out of pocket", "out of the loop", "ping", "pushback", "put to bed", "rubber check", "Rube Goldberg device", "shotgun approach", "silver bullet", "skillset", "stakeholders", "sweat equity", "take away", "talk turkey", "timeframe", "traction", "value-added", "zero sum game".  

UNDERSTANDING COMPUTER JARGON There is a lot to learn in understanding computer jargon. Here's more examples of jargon: "browser", "bus", "cache", "chip", "cookie", "CPU", "crash", "database", "dot pitch", "download", "driver", "file", "firewall", "folder", fragmentation", "freeware", "gopher", "hardware", "interface", "keyboard shortcuts", "mouse", "network", "operating system", "plug and play", "resolution", "software", "spam", "upload", "URL", and "virus". 

ENGLISH SLANG

airhead: stupid person. ace: excellent, great Adam and Eve - Rhyming Slang for 'believe'

aggro - short for aggravation or violence amber fluid : beer anorak - geek, nerd. apples and pears - Rhyming Slang for 'stairs'. armpit: dirty, unappealing place.  arse / ass [slightly offensive]: backside.

Workplace jargon

Workplace Jargon is a term used in the United Kingdom to describe the often needless and/or meaningless sentences and phrases used by both managers and colleagues in the workplace instead of plain English.

It is also known as "corporate speak", "corporate nonsense" and "buzz phrase" in the UK, where these three phrases have a slightly different meaning to the U.S. interpretation and Corporate speak.

Examples

land and expand - a strategy to sell a small solution and then grow it within the clients environment create the storyboard - outline what the solution will look like

cover all directions of the compass - trying to make things acceptable for all stakeholders

power to the elbow - getting additional backup information to make your case stronger

blue sky thinking - Idealistic or visionary ideas - not always with practical application

off the shelf - buying in a product or service already completed 

Dialect

The term dialect (from the Greek Language word dialektos, Διάλεκτος) is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers.] The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class.[2] A dialect that is associated with a particular social class can be termed a sociolect; a regional dialect may be termed a regiolect or topolect. The other usage refers to a language socially subordinate to a regional or national standard language, often historically cognate to the standard, but not a variety of it or in any other sense derived from it. This more precise usage enables distinguishing between varieties of a language, such as the French spoken in Nice, France, and local languages distinct from the superordinate language, e.g. Nissart, the traditional native Romance language of Nice, known in French as Niçard. 

English is actually an unusual language.  Already a blend of early Frisian and Saxon, it absorbed Danish and Norman French, and later added many Latin and Greek technical terms.  In the US, Canada, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and elsewhere, it absorbed terms for indigenous plants, animals, foodstuffs, clothing, housing, and other items from native and immigrant languages.  Plus, the various dialects, from Cockney to Jamaican, and innumerable sources of slang, from Polari to hip hop, continue to add novel terms and expressions to the mix.  It is no surprise to hear from people learning English what a student once told me:  English just has too many words!

A dialect is distinguished by its vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation (phonology, including prosody). Where a distinction can be made only in terms of pronunciation, the term accent is appropriate, not dialect. Other speech varieties include: standard languages, which are standardized for public performance (for example, a written standard); jargons, which are characterized by differences in lexicon (vocabulary); slang; patois; pidgins or argots. 

The particular speech patterns used by an individual are termed an idiolect.

Standard and non-standard dialect 

A standard dialect (also known as a standardized dialect or "standard language") is a dialect that is supported by institutions. Such institutional support may include government recognition or designation; presentation as being the "correct" form of a language in schools; published grammars, dictionaries, and textbooks that set forth a "correct" spoken and written form; and an extensive formal literature that employs that dialect (prose, poetry, non-fiction, etc.). There may be multiple standard dialects associated with a single language. For example, Standard American English, Standard Canadian English, Standard Indian English, Standard Australian English, and Standard Philippine English may all be said to be standard dialects of the English language.

A nonstandard dialect, like a standard dialect, has a complete vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, but is not the beneficiary of institutional support. An example of a nonstandard English dialect is Southern American English. The Dialect Test was designed by Joseph Wright to compare different English dialects with each other. 

Southern 

Southern English engages in r-dropping, that is, r's are not pronounced after vowels, unless followed by another vowel.  Instead, vowels are lengthened or have an /'/ off-glide, so fire becomes /fai'/, far becomes /fa:/, and so on.

regular use of "broad a" (/a:/), where GA (General American) would use /æ/.

"long o" is pronounced /'u/, where GA uses /ou/.

final unstressed i is pronounced /i/, where GA uses /i:).

t between vowels retained as /t/ (or a glottal stop, in its variants), where GA changes it to /d/. 

Cockney

Originally the dialect of the working class of East End London.

initial h is dropped, so house becomes /aus/ (or even /a:s/).

/th/ and /dh/ become /f/ and /v/ respectively: think > /fingk/, brother > /brœv'/.

t between vowels becomes a glottal stop: water > /wo?i/.

diphthongs change, sometimes dramatically: time > /toim/, brave > /braiv/, etc. 

Scotland

Scotland actually has more variation in dialects than England!  The variations do have a few things in common, though, besides a large particularly Scottish vocabulary:

rolled r's.

"pure" vowels (/e:/ rather than /ei/, /o:/ rather than /ou/)

/u:/ is often fronted to /ö/ or /ü/, e.g. boot, good, muin (moon), poor...