4 ms·
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 b
by 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 agoIt'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.