Jack Cole <jcol...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I agree that it doesn't matter to us who have looked into the research, > but do you think it would make a difference with the broader population of > scientists, general public, and the patent office? >
No, that is a forlorn hope. That is the reason people invent euphemisms. They want to escape some embarrassing or unfortunate association with the word. But as soon as the euphemism becomes widely used, the association attaches to it and you are back where you started. You have to invent another euphemism. That is why we have so many words for things like toilets, mental retardation, or crippled, and why the politically correct word for crippled keeps changing, sometimes to stupid terms such as "differently abled." Another thing to remember is that no one is in charge of language. No one decides what words will become popular, and what words will fade away. In a narrow technical discipline a committee can decide what to call things such as units of measure (Watt, Joule, Tesla). But for something that will have an impact as large as cold fusion, no one is charge. Many widely used words linger on long after the literal meaning has become obsolete. We still talk of ships "sailing." We still say "roll the tape" meaning show a video, even though nothing rolls and there is no tape. - Jed
