On communication

[draggonlaady]

Bruce and I recently discovered that we sometimes know the same words, but with different definitions. Both of us are correct, but because we use different (correct) definitions for the same word, our understanding may not be correct.... I wonder how often this happens and is not discovered?
Examples: Pith. When someone piths something, in my mind it means they stuck a spike in the brain stem to kill it. In Bruce's world, that it means they removed the white stringy stuff from a citrus fruit. Yeah, that was an interesting conversation--how do you spike an orange's brain stem?

Diction. I have always interpreted diction as word choice, vocabulary, and manner of speaking. He says it means enunciation and precision in speaking. We look it up, it means both.

Anybody else have words like that?

Comments

[sagaciouslu.livejournal.com]

I find that context, mostly, reveals alternative definitions that I was previously unaware of (I love your pith/pith example). Quite often, however, I find that people use words incorrectly.

As a result, I've become a fan of malapropisms. My current favourite is: "I like having grey hair; it makes me look extinguished."

Heh.

[draggonlaady.livejournal.com]

Mostly context helps... but with diction; if Bruce says I have poor diction, he means I am slurring. I take it as an insult to my vocabulary. And with many people, if they use a definition I don't know, I often just assume they used the word wrong, but now I'm questioning how often they're right and I just don't know there's a second definition for a word I know...self doubt! eeek!

Now I'm picturing someone with a bunch of ash dumped on their head. :P

[winnett.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I have them, but I can't think of anything right now. It is interesting, though.