A changing language

Having spent a little time in France recently, and observed their efforts to maintain the integrity of the French language, we have been reflecting  on the changing nature of English. France has gone to the extreme of legislating in an effort to keep some purity in the language. With words from English such as internet and McDonalds threatening to turn French into a fractured English, we can understand why.
 
But in English our problem is different. It is that the meaning of words is changing. In our lifetime alone we have seen a word such as “cool” take on several different meanings. And only one of those meanings is descriptive of temperature. We can accept that in the world of popular culture, adapting words to differing meanings can have a certain cachet.
But a problem arises in the world of commerce when words are adapted to different meanings. There can be significant impacts when one party to a transaction takes a totally different meaning to a word than the other party does.
We recently entered into a transaction which was “confidential”. Our view of this word was that confidential meant that details were shared between ourselves and the other party. Not with the media, the industry, twitter, facebook or Instagram. Not because there was anything untoward about the transaction, but  because we believe that  details of certain activities are the business of the parties concerned only, and that consenting adults have a right to privacy.
 
Unfortunately, the other party thought  “confidential” meant that details  should be shared using a variety of methods, and to a wide section of the industry.
Now, the details were not embarrassing, nor illegal, or even socially uncomfortable. But revelation was annoying. We suspect the party concerned would have used Twitter and Facebook and Instagram to spread the news if they knew how.
 
So in future we will be sure to define our understanding of the meaning of the word “confidential”.
And don’t even start us on the meaning of “professional”.