Jargon is just the Pitts
When I was first looking for a proper job, age 18, I went to a personnel agency – Kelly Girl? Is that still a thing? – and the lady interviewing me wrote “TTC” large across my form.
Eventually I asked what meant.
“Oh… Top Top Calibre,” she said. Hmm. Occasionally I wonder about that.
I’ve looked it up, but unless she was saying I was “Trying To Conceive,” which I most certainly was not, I remain clueless.
And now the Oxford English Dictionary compilers are hunting down just such expressions to add to their word lists in an attempt to clarify arcane industry-speak for everyday folk – just as dictionaries should. They’re going jargon-busting, but the question is: will those who use such terms really want to share them?
It was a techie friend in my old office who first clued me in to the secret jargon used by people who know stuff that you don’t, and who would like to keep it that way, either to save your blushes or their own.
He was helping me fix my computer.
“You have an ID-ten-T issue,” he explained, as he switched my machine off and back on again. I stared at him blankly.
“Write it down,” he said, before wandering off, giggling. So I did: “I.D.10.T.” Idiot. Thank you, Dave. Then, when I was researching a piece about organ donation, I discovered the expression GPO. I doubt they teach it in medical school, but sometimes patients are, alas, Good for Parts Only, or even PBAB – Pine Box At Bedside.
Medical personnel love these things: an annoying patient might be referred to as a Gomer – Get Out of My Emergency Room – whereas vets favour the acronym DSTO, Dog Smarter Than Owner.
Newsrooms are awash with “widows and orphans” (a typographical no-no), “slugs” (a story name on the system) and “spiking” (killing a story).
Of course, builders, mechanics and artisans are the experts at intractable terminology. It’s as if they aim to baffle the rest of us – and why wouldn’t they?
But mostly there’s convenience in such shorthand, allowing folk in the know to communicate efficiently, even when others are listening, and especially when they’re dealing with a Pitt – a Pain In The Tush. it