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What does the word "nominally" even mean in this context (performed "nominally")? This word has permeated through technical discourse lately. My coworkers use i

What does the word "nominally" even mean in this context (performed "nominally")? This word has permeated through technical discourse lately. My coworkers use it excessively, usually understood as "on average" or "to a first approximation", but the word itself literally means "in name only". It's just a technical-sounding word engineers use to indicate they're guessing or don't have numbers to back something up, and to me that's exactly how it reads here, too.

trhaynes 9y ago
I found https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nominal https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nominal See the "engineering" context: "According to plan or design; normal."
grzm 9y ago
In this context it means "as expected", nothing out of the ordinary. Sense 5 here: > "5 : being according to plan : satisfactory everything was nominal during the launch" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nominally https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nominally
foobarbecue 9y ago
Permeated technical discourse lately? By lately, do you mean since the 1960s? "Nominal" in engineering means that the predicted value matches the expected value without significant error.
niftich 9y ago
In aeronautics it means, roughly, 'within acceptable tolerances', or, in other words, 'as expected'. For a good analysis of this sense of the meaning, see this StackExchange answer [1] to this question. [1] https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/184876/how-did-nominal-come-to-mean-within-acceptable-tolerances/189686#189686 https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/184876/how-did-n...
- plaidfuji 9y ago
  Yup, found that. Makes sense now. Still think my coworkers are using it incorrectly. Probably has something to do with the fact that our boss uses it frequently as well.
  - niftich 9y ago
    FWIW, what your coworkers are doing is one of the ways that language slowly changes. By them misunderstanding the true meaning of the word and applying it in a slightly different, but distinct sense, the word is undergoing semantic drift [1] in their circles. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_change https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_change
lobster_johnson 9y ago
"Approximate" is one of the several meanings [1] of the word. Another is "being according to plan". [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nominal https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nominal
deleted 9y ago
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trhaynes 9y ago

I found https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nominal https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nominal See the "engineering" context: "According to plan or design; normal."

grzm 9y ago

In this context it means "as expected", nothing out of the ordinary. Sense 5 here: > "5 : being according to plan : satisfactory everything was nominal during the launch" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nominally https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nominally

foobarbecue 9y ago

Permeated technical discourse lately? By lately, do you mean since the 1960s? "Nominal" in engineering means that the predicted value matches the expected value without significant error.

niftich 9y ago

In aeronautics it means, roughly, 'within acceptable tolerances', or, in other words, 'as expected'. For a good analysis of this sense of the meaning, see this StackExchange answer [1] to this question. [1] https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/184876/how-did-nominal-come-to-mean-within-acceptable-tolerances/189686#189686 https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/184876/how-did-n...

plaidfuji 9y ago
Yup, found that. Makes sense now. Still think my coworkers are using it incorrectly. Probably has something to do with the fact that our boss uses it frequently as well.
- niftich 9y ago
  FWIW, what your coworkers are doing is one of the ways that language slowly changes. By them misunderstanding the true meaning of the word and applying it in a slightly different, but distinct sense, the word is undergoing semantic drift [1] in their circles. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_change https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_change

lobster_johnson 9y ago

"Approximate" is one of the several meanings [1] of the word. Another is "being according to plan". [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nominal https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nominal

deleted 9y ago

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