4 ms·

Every time I hear the word "organic" it bothers me. All food is organic! Whoever heard of inorganic food? If it were inorganic, we damn well couldn't digest it.

jrockway 17y ago
It may surprise you that words have different meanings depending on the context they are used in. Chemistry and agriculture are two different fields, each with their own version of some words.
pbhjpbhj 17y ago
Presumably you think that a woman described as "foxy" has red fur and a bushy tail? Or if someone tells you a UI needs spicing up then you hang some chilli peppers on the monitor? You may think it's pedantry you're practising - other people seem to cope with the dual meanings, personally I think you know exactly what is meant and are just being facetious (my father is just the same; in this instance he attempts to use the apparent absurdity as an attack against the intellectual standards of those espousing Organic, I think that attack fails and makes him look foolish, ditto for yourself).
- hughprime 17y ago
  It's not pedantry, it's a protest against a stupid, ill-defined marketing neologism. The use of the word "organic" to mean "pertaining to living beings" dates back to the 18th century, and attempts to label a tiny subset of organic material as "organic" are a recent invention which really bugs me, as much as it would bug me if people started referring to a small subset of food as "edible food" for marketing purposes.
  - pbhjpbhj 17y ago
    It's only ill-defined if you ignore accepted definitions. "Organic" is not purely used in marketing but describes the method of production and indicates the specifics of the husbandry and nutrition of animals and the type of fertiliser and conditions of growth of plants. The specific definition is left to particular standards bodies. Compare: Use of the word "judge" to mean "someone who determines what's right" dates way back, attempts to label a tiny subset of the population as "judges" [simply because they determine a specific type of judgement] is a more recent invention that bugs me.

jrockway 17y ago

It may surprise you that words have different meanings depending on the context they are used in. Chemistry and agriculture are two different fields, each with their own version of some words.

pbhjpbhj 17y ago

Presumably you think that a woman described as "foxy" has red fur and a bushy tail? Or if someone tells you a UI needs spicing up then you hang some chilli peppers on the monitor? You may think it's pedantry you're practising - other people seem to cope with the dual meanings, personally I think you know exactly what is meant and are just being facetious (my father is just the same; in this instance he attempts to use the apparent absurdity as an attack against the intellectual standards of those espousing Organic, I think that attack fails and makes him look foolish, ditto for yourself).

hughprime 17y ago
It's not pedantry, it's a protest against a stupid, ill-defined marketing neologism. The use of the word "organic" to mean "pertaining to living beings" dates back to the 18th century, and attempts to label a tiny subset of organic material as "organic" are a recent invention which really bugs me, as much as it would bug me if people started referring to a small subset of food as "edible food" for marketing purposes.
- pbhjpbhj 17y ago
  It's only ill-defined if you ignore accepted definitions. "Organic" is not purely used in marketing but describes the method of production and indicates the specifics of the husbandry and nutrition of animals and the type of fertiliser and conditions of growth of plants. The specific definition is left to particular standards bodies. Compare: Use of the word "judge" to mean "someone who determines what's right" dates way back, attempts to label a tiny subset of the population as "judges" [simply because they determine a specific type of judgement] is a more recent invention that bugs me.