# Words that have a different meaning in your profession than generally **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 13, 2021, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865 "2021-02-13T23:39:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/61 "2021-02-15T18:25:45Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > In my business a “smurf” or “smurfing” means to break up a large amount of cash into several smaller units, each then sent or transported by a different guy. When you’re talking about depositing that cash (or money in another form) into a bank, or sending money from a bank to somewhere/someone else, in banking parlance, that’s “structuring.” It’s generally done to avoid the attention of the authorities when moving large amounts of money around – you break up the money into smaller chunks. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/62 "2021-02-15T18:27:55Z")
When my brother was a traveling rep for the Lafayette Blind Company, the sign on the back of his company van said, “Warning! This vehicle is being driven by a blind man.” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/63 "2021-02-15T18:34:03Z")
Yes, I know that. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/64 "2021-02-15T18:42:06Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > It’s the most basic unit of storage, a circuit that can store a value of either 0 or 1. And a “register” is a bank of flip-flops. A “stripper” is a tool that removes the insulation from wires. It has nothing to do with women who remove their clothes. Male and Female refer to connector types. Asking what sex of a connector you need is not a rude question. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/65 "2021-02-15T18:48:27Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > A “stripper” is a tool that removes the insulation from wires. It has nothing to do with women who remove their clothes. A “stripper,” in the printing business, used to be someone who painstakingly assembled the negatives (film negatives) for use in the four-color printing process. I don’t think there’s much call for that kind of stripping these days, but I could be wrong. It’s been decades since I’ve had anything to do with printing. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/66 "2021-02-15T20:01:31Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > A “stripper,” in the printing business, used to be someone who painstakingly assembled the negatives (film negatives) for use in the four-color printing process. A stripper in fintech is an algorithm from extracting a yield curve from a collection of instruments, each with a different maturity, so you can nearly-correctly use the instruments in sequence, stripping the shortest part of the yield curve from the shortest-maturity instrument, and then treating that part of the curve as a constant when using the next instrument to solve for the next curve segment. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/67 "2021-02-15T21:36:53Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > A “stripper,” in the printing business, used to be someone who painstakingly assembled the negatives (film negatives) for use in the four-color printing process. > > I don’t think there’s much call for that kind of stripping these days, but I could be wrong. It’s been decades since I’ve had anything to do with printing. I was a stripper for a couple of years. Very, very hard on the eyes. I hope it’s not done anymore. ---
**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:** [February 15, 2021, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/68 "2021-02-15T22:04:14Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > They are undesirable. Why?. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/69 "2021-02-15T22:13:32Z")
They are a visual distraction, basically. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/70 "2021-02-15T23:34:17Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > In electronics, a “flip-flop” is not something you wear on your feet, nor is it a politician who changes their mind. It’s the most basic unit of storage, a circuit that can store a value of either 0 or 1. And a multivibrator is not a sex toy. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/71 "2021-02-15T23:43:35Z")
For fun, have a mechanical engineer and an electrical engineer talk about the flow of something, and watch what happens when they use words like “open” and “closed” - because the EE will tend to think of opening something to stop flow (making an “open circuit” where no flow happens) while the ME (or ChemE) will tend to think of opening something to start flow (an open gate allows flow). And the reverse, of course, for “closed” ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2021, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/72 "2021-02-15T23:51:48Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > And repos aren’t just for your car. Although a reverse repo in the car industry would be fun! ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/73 "2021-02-16T00:09:17Z")
My problem machining in metric is the confounded tolerance reference chart. Just put that crap on the drawing, and don’t make me look up a chart! ---
**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:** [February 16, 2021, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/74 "2021-02-16T00:29:44Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > “Pedis are back and available!” > > If you’re a lawyer, who’s been involved in the criminal courts, “pedis” have a meaning that I don’t think the hair salon meant… Mani-pedi is very common for manicure-pedicure. Are you really sure that pedi is an alternative to pedo? I’ve never heard it in TV cop shows, and If someone said “he’s a pedi” I think most people would just be confused. I guess I’m skeptical how it would come about that lawyers would use an abbreviation that’s different to the one in common use, an abbreviation which changes the vowel of the full word for no obvious reason, and which is in common use meaning something else. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/75 "2021-02-16T00:40:55Z")
I’m a baker professionally, and when I make yeast raised products I “ **proof** ” them. It means I let them rise in a warm place and bake them off. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/76 "2021-02-16T00:50:59Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Naked options. Nothing do with with clothing optional, just derivatives trading. Yeah, I overheard my wife (who’s in finance) on a conference call in the car talking about servicing some client’s jumbo. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/77 "2021-02-16T01:08:11Z")
Mathematicians and physicists use a special definition of the word “degenerate”. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/78 "2021-02-16T01:13:16Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > In statistics, “predict” does not mean saying what will happen in the future (even though the word looks to me like its roots mean “say before”. It means to explain one thing on the basis of others, typically in the past. To say anything about the future, in statistics, is to “forecast”. Like in “predicated”? ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/79 "2021-02-16T02:26:24Z")
And the minute you do that, mirabile dictu, secondary sources become primary sources! ---
**Author:** ![Ynnad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4491bb/32.png) [@Ynnad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ynnad)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2021, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865/80 "2021-02-16T03:36:47Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I was a stripper for a couple of years. Very, very hard on the eyes. I hope it’s not done anymore. As Larry the Cable Guy would say, I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-have-a-different-meaning-in-your-profession-than-generally/932865.md?page=5)