# Existing words you (re)introduced to coworkers
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 16, 2015, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839 "2015-02-16T18:09:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@inedible\_knapsack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inedible_knapsack)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2015, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/1 "2015-02-16T18:09:12Z")
I’m a well-known logophile, and while I try not to use words like “logophile” in a business setting so as not to look like a pedant, I love to use precise, well-known words which convey meaning specifically. Oddly, I get a feeling of accomplishment to see these words catch on with my co-workers.
For example, a few weeks ago I asked about the standard “nomenclature” for a set of software tools our area produces. Conversation about “tool names” had been going on for a while, so the introduction of nomenclature was met with murmurs of approval all around. Later, I overheard one of them talking to another coworker about the need for a standard nomenclature since our catalog was growing. I smiled.
Anybody else introducing terminology in the workplace?
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/2 "2015-02-16T19:23:19Z")
I think I’m responsible for a sharp spike in the use of an odd word here. Does that count? 🙂
I was in documentation/tech writing/communications/marketing support for most of my corporate career, so I was the point source of many specific word-usages. As a logophile myself, preferring lightning to lightning bugs, I was not shy about maintaining correct nomenclature in meetings and product discussions.
Until my boss used the word ‘para-diggem’ in a meeting, at which point many of us found our notepads very, very, very interesting.
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### Author:  [@harrietvane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harrietvane)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/3 "2015-02-16T20:23:04Z")
This is pretty silly, but I’ve gotten a bunch of cowworkers saying “toodles” or “toodleloo” when they leave.
I’m also a big fan of tertiary, but it’s not catching on around the office.
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### Author:  [@inedible\_knapsack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inedible_knapsack)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/4 "2015-02-16T21:09:29Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> I think I’m responsible for a sharp spike in the use of an odd word here. Does that count? 🙂
>
> I was in documentation/tech writing/communications/marketing support for most of my corporate career, so I was the point source of many specific word-usages. As a logophile myself, preferring lightning to lightning bugs, I was not shy about maintaining correct nomenclature in meetings and product discussions.
>
> Until my boss used the word ‘para-diggem’ in a meeting, at which point many of us found our notepads very, very, very interesting.
😃 We’ve had some similar incidents around here, usually with management. Poractive instead of proactive is my favorite. How do you correct something so priceless?
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### Author:  [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2015, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/5 "2015-02-16T21:48:17Z")
For me it was fungible. I was asked why, with 6 weeks left in a 2 year project, I couldn’t reduce that final 6 weeks to 4 weeks by adding more programmers. I said, “Engineers aren’t fungible.” The word, and the phrase, became popular for awhile at that company.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2015, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/6 "2015-02-16T23:21:51Z")
Nextly.
You know - when listing or ordering things; Firstly… Nextly… Furtherly… Finally
It’s a real word, but not commonly used nowadays, except by me and those I manage to infect with it.
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### Author:  [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2015, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/7 "2015-02-17T10:02:52Z")
But I kind of like:
number one
B.
OTOH
and in conclusion…
😛
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2015, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/8 "2015-02-17T10:49:08Z")
Soporific, and potable.
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### Author:  [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2015, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/9 "2015-02-17T11:02:28Z")
Borked. As in, don’t try printing, the printer is borked again.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2015, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/10 "2015-02-17T13:51:31Z")
I can’t say it caught on but I remember a co-worker who was annoyed at me for using the word innocuous in a report. He claimed first that I had made it up and then, after I showed it to him in a dictionary, that nobody would know what it meant.
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### Author:  [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2015, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/11 "2015-02-17T13:52:57Z")
My boss thought pagination was something really really BAD.
I stopped a meeting cold when I mentioned that keeping the mailing lists current was my Sisyphean task, but I don’t think anyone else tried that.
Lately I responded to a group email complaining that I couldn’t parse the desired actions. Now we have a flood of parsing.
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### Author:  [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/12 "2015-02-17T13:56:24Z")
I’m well-known for doing this. Gist, thrice, buttocks, delightful, and many others.
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/13 "2015-02-17T14:16:51Z")
At the same company, I was the designated screamer. Both the boss and I hated newspeak, and it was publicly announced that if anyone used certain words in a meeting, I got to scream.
“Utilize” and “prioritize” were the main two.
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### Author:  [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/14 "2015-02-17T17:55:54Z")
Janky
Wonky
Slapdash
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### Author:  [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2015, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/15 "2015-02-17T21:30:01Z")
I worked with many who English is their second language. So when I used “cockeyed” in a meeting, it caused a murmur, then a request for definition, then enthusiastic widespread usage and acceptance all the way up to the executive level.
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### Author:  [@Soulcatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soulcatcher)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2015, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/16 "2015-02-17T22:33:50Z")
I think I’m responsible for the common usage of the word “fuckery”
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### Author:  [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2015, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/17 "2015-02-17T22:58:49Z")
Two words just recently were cathartic and eccentricities. I have been accused of making up words.
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### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2015, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/18 "2015-02-17T23:15:01Z")
Lacunae, as in “your explanation of the procedures has several lacunae that need to be filled in.” You see, I even practically explained what it meant by the phrase at the end of the sentence. Still, it didn’t catch on.
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### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2015, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/19 "2015-02-17T23:32:21Z")
I just introduced my CEO to the word **synecdoche** - fun times. He referenced one of our product offerings not by its name, but by one of its attributes. I said “nice synecdoche” and he stopped and said “wha?”
By the same token, during another conversation, I invoked a quote from Oscar Wilde “If I had more time, I would’ve written a shorter letter” and he showed me how that quote, while attributed to Wilde, has also been attributed to many others going back well before him.
Cool learning goes in both directions.
…and don’t get me started on using **Weltanschauung** (“worldview”) in strategy meetings…😉
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### Author:  [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)
#### Post date: [February 18, 2015, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/existing-words-you-re-introduced-to-coworkers/712839/20 "2015-02-18T00:09:19Z")
I tried to reintroduce _now_ and _then_ to my superiors for years. They wouldn’t budge from using _at this time_ and _at that time_. ugh.
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