By Amy Miller
Buzzwords are annoying, even nasty and sometimes dangerous.
Phrases employed to be impressive in business, like “core competency” or “stakeholder,” are meant to sound professional and smart but end up sounding officious at best and vapid at worst.
A buzzword is “an important-sounding usually technical word or phrase often of little meaning used chiefly to impress laymen,” wrote one online critic. Buzzwords loses their original meaning “through fashionable use, being simply used to impress others,” wrote another.
Buzzwords and phrases aren’t just meaningless; they also inadvertently send a subtle message that the user lacks substance.It’s one thing to be lofty. We are all guilty of working to sound smart at times. It’s also understandable to call out to your tribe. But it is dishonest to use shorthand without acknowledging its full intent and meaning.
For instance, talk of “identity politics,” or declaring that “all lives matter,” connote far more than the definition of the words. They attach themselves to a belief system.
No matter how much someone says that “Black? lives” are included in “all lives,” this phrase is a call out to others in a tribe and indicates a lack of interest in how much less Black lives have mattered through history, and now. No matter how much someone says the Civil War was literally a “War Between the States,” they are sending the message that they believe the South was justified. In fact, the term “Civil War” was adopted as a euphemism as well because southerners refused to accept the War of the Rebellion, which put the South clearly at fault. “Civil War” de-emphasized the role of slavery and let both sides interpret the conflict as they wished.
In 2023, one of the most controversial buzz phrases has been “from the River to the Sea.” Although the words by themselves are vague and can be interpreted in many ways, they have been a rallying cry by those who want to end the state of Israel, and those who use them are sending this signal.
Examples of such signaling and obfuscation in politics are everywhere. A politician who refers to “real Americans” is talking to other people who consider themselves “real Americans.” But who is a “real American?””? For that matter, who represents “working class” America?
Anyone who uses this kind of shorthand should have the courage and the honesty to say what they truly mean. Then we can decide if we want to be in that tribe.
By Guy Trammell Jr.
Stunning, crypto, metaverse are buzzwords used in social media and general communications. Buzzwords can go in and out of usage. They can be recycled over time and their meaning can change. But the actual meaning of a buzzword isn’t what makes it a buzzword. It’s the context and active use of buzzwords in society that make them buzzword
The business buzzword “best practice” is an example. We know the best business practice in Los Angeles will not necessarily work the same in Tibet, but that does not stop “best practice” from being widely used.
Many buzzwords have unique origins. “Limelight” now speaks of popularity and attention grabbing. However, in the 1920s a cylinder of limestone was heated to make light in theaters; hence the term.
One of the largest producers of electricity, the Tennessee Valley Authority, was established in 1933. Alabama Power was established in 1906. But Arthur Ulysses Craig had created the world’s first Black owned and operated electric company in the 1890s for Booker T. Washington’s Village of Greenwood, lighting homes, businesses and churches
Craig also installed a telephone exchange, and Tuskegee’s Dr. Ophelia Hamilton Pearson Cooper became the world’s first colored telephone operator, or “Hello Girl.” She was also the world’s first trainer for colored “Hello Girls” who studied at Tuskegee Institute. Her home was by the campus entrance at Lincoln Gates.
Dr. Cooper’s neighbor, Lionel Richie, penned the 1983 hit lyrics, “Hello, is it me you’re looking for?” The expression “hello” was rarely used until Thomas Edison improved the telephone in 1877. His suggestion to use “hello” on calls made it popular and a buzzword after “hello” appeared in phone books.
Conversely, “goodbye” is a shortened version of the phrase “God be with you.” The Spanish adios and French adieu actually mean “to God.”
“Community” and “citizenship” promote coming together and working for improvement. However, between 1901 and 1960, British colonists in Kenya used both terms for “rehabilitating” Black trouble making anti-colonial activists, setting up community development programs to make them “responsible” and accepting “citizens.”
A buzz thought on a buzzword: In most grassroots movements (and yes, I know grassroots is another buzzword) “capacity building” is a practice that advances movements to greater outreach. However, in this global society where those holding the most capital make the decisions, the question becomes: Whose capacities are seen as worth building??
Oh, but that’s not “responsible” or accepting! I’m buzzing in the wrong direction.
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