jargon, argot, lingua franca

   At a conference of sociologists some years ago, love was defined as "the cognitive-affective state characterized by intrusive fantasizing concerning reciprocity of amorant feelings by the object of the amorance." That is jargon- the practice of never calling a spade a spade when you might instead call it a manual earth-restructuring implement. So long as it circulates only among a given profession, jargon is usually unobjectionable and frequently useful, since every profession needs its own form of shorthand. But all too often it escapes into the wider world, so that we encounter "attitudinal constructs" when what is meant is attitudes and "optimally consonant patterns of learning" for a sound education. In this sense, jargon is always better avoided.

   Argot was originally the language of thieves, but has, like jargon, come to mean a way of communicating peculiar to a particular group. Lingua franca (literally "the Frankish tongue") is any language or mixture of languages that serves as a common means of communication among diverse parties. English, for instance, is the lingua franca of international air travel.

   See also creole, patois.