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And to a non-native speaker maybe the English terms 'butt dial' and 'booty call' should have been better chosen. Language evolution knows no obvious master, an

And to a non-native speaker maybe the English terms 'butt dial' and 'booty call' should have been better chosen. Language evolution knows no obvious master, and getting angry over that evolution as if a particular domain of study has ownership of a subset of words is ridiculous.

elefantastisch 9y ago
Indeed. As upsetting as it may be to have ambiguity introduced into the terms of your domain, you're never going to stop it. Better to focus your efforts on what you can control: your own choice of terms. The term cryptography has always left out the critical importance of operational security and correct implementation and usage of cryptography. Instead of trying to protect "crypto", which is never going to happen, we can choose to use a different term, maybe even one which encompasses a fuller range of concerns. Data security, InfoSec, communication privacy... I don't know what the best term would be, but "crypto" is never going to go back to unambiguously referring to cryptography. Terms must always adapt to changes around them. "Silent movie" wasn't a term before "talkies" came around. They just called them "movies".
dingaling 9y ago
But neither of those composite terms is clobbering a preexisting meaning. Whilst their meanings may not be clear at first encounter they can be quickly and unambiguously determined using a dictionary. In fact I had to look up booty call just now and understand immediately the difference. Whereas "Switzerland should become crypto capital" can mean different things to different people simultaneously. That's the problem. If I look up crypto in a notional 2018 dictionary and it has two definitions, which do I choose?
- Torgo 9y ago
  If someone said "crypto capital" I would immediately think "hidden capital" ala "crypto-Jews" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-Judaism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-Judaism

elefantastisch 9y ago

Indeed. As upsetting as it may be to have ambiguity introduced into the terms of your domain, you're never going to stop it. Better to focus your efforts on what you can control: your own choice of terms. The term cryptography has always left out the critical importance of operational security and correct implementation and usage of cryptography. Instead of trying to protect "crypto", which is never going to happen, we can choose to use a different term, maybe even one which encompasses a fuller range of concerns. Data security, InfoSec, communication privacy... I don't know what the best term would be, but "crypto" is never going to go back to unambiguously referring to cryptography. Terms must always adapt to changes around them. "Silent movie" wasn't a term before "talkies" came around. They just called them "movies".

dingaling 9y ago

But neither of those composite terms is clobbering a preexisting meaning. Whilst their meanings may not be clear at first encounter they can be quickly and unambiguously determined using a dictionary. In fact I had to look up booty call just now and understand immediately the difference. Whereas "Switzerland should become crypto capital" can mean different things to different people simultaneously. That's the problem. If I look up crypto in a notional 2018 dictionary and it has two definitions, which do I choose?

Torgo 9y ago
If someone said "crypto capital" I would immediately think "hidden capital" ala "crypto-Jews" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-Judaism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto-Judaism