On communication
Nov. 26th, 2011 10:36 amBruce 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?
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?