# Different things that have the same name (where you live) and nobody gets confused **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 17, 2021, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739 "2021-01-17T16:33:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 5
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2021, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739/5 "2021-01-17T17:24:33Z")
Another example in a recent thread, somebody insisting (contrary to all evidence of literally\* centuries of usage) that the semantic scope of the word “guest” should exclude anyone who is paying, as in a hotel guest. Because, if it doesn’t resolve the potential ambiguity between those who are paying and those who are not, what use is the word at all? > [@Corporate Speak That Pisses You Off](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corporate-speak-that-pisses-you-off/928852/52): > > But we have another word for that which is “customer.” This definition has thus destroyed the term “guest” and deprived it of any meaning. If you knocked on my door right now and pointed at my mother in law, and I said she was a guest, would you believe I had charged her for admission? You would not. If I said she was a customer, you would believe that I had charged her. Regardless of dictionary definitions, that is the common understanding of the difference in those terms. Otherwise, we m… \*(no ambiguity here) --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-things-that-have-the-same-name-where-you-live-and-nobody-gets-confused/930739)._