2007/11/20 by T. Ryan Gregory · 5 citations
Arts and Humanities · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Physics and Astronomy · #Evolution and Science Education #Origins and Evolution of Life #Socioeconomics of Resources and Conservation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s12052-007-0001-z
openalex publication_date 2007/11/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
With its vocabulary of hundreds of thousands of words, one might expect English to boast a surplus of ways to express different concepts. Indeed, there are many well-known examples of multiple descriptors for the same item or idea, often one or more from the Germanic and others from the Latinate roots of modern English. In addition to the diversity resulting from a history of linguistic hybridization, English has a tendency to assimilate words from other languages and to include the de novo creation of terms as the need arises. Thus, most technically complex professions exhibit a plethora of neologisms and jargon that can be all but impenetrable to nonexperts. Science is certainly no exception in this regard.