Terminology
This page is more a general discussion about terminology.
For terminology specifically related to this APM wiki see page "APM related terms" and related section at the end.
Contents
Why terminology is of paramount importance
By striving for good terminology one gains more efficient communication.
This makes life easier and chances for success greater.
Effects of good terminology:
- from what the speaker says listener understands what the speaker really means - avoiding confusion and hardening of misconceptions
- the speaker does not have to resort to excessive elaboration - avoiding repetition and saving time
- intangible vague ideas can be broken up into comprehensible sub-concepts
Delineation to nomenclature
- Terminology … about single words
- Nomenclature … systematic naming schemes (like naming molecules, or sets of similar engineering parts)
What makes great terminology
The four tl;dr to remember:
- collision free
- unannexable
- baffling
- memorizable
Avoid terminology collisions!! Instead seek white spaces on the terminology map.
- collision/conflict-free
- novel/unique
Major search engine conjures or no results. Or few that cover a highly unrelated topics.
Avoid competition with existing terminology especially for topics similar in nature
Seek unannexable terminology that can hardly be stolen away.
- descriptive – Putting sufficiently descriptive elements into the term can
make it hard to impossible for competing concepts adopt the same terms, and thus they cannot drown out search results.
Strongly avoid to use things as generic as "nano" as prefix.
Seek catchy terminology!
But what does that even mean?
catchy = clickbaity + memorizable
Seek strongly curiosity-sparking terminology, clickbaity terminology.
- mental dissonance causing, baffling on first sight – e.g. transparent aluminum
Seek memorizable (and communicable) terminology!
- spellable (by target audience) – avoid a slew of consecutive consonants - no "qtpfsgui"
- brief – (the less spellable the briefer it needs to be)
Seek humorous terminology!
- humorous, good-kind-of-odd
- repetitive self rhyming
Example: "gem-gum-tec"
- collisionfree & novel – yes, till 2022 at least
- descriptive – yes see: Gem-gum
- baffling – yes, Hopefully achieved aim is to sparking the question:
How the heck can gum (rubber) be made from gem (gemstone)?
Resolved in the expanded (highly ununannexable) terminology "gemstone metamaterial technology" - spellable – yes, no consecutive consonants
- brief – yes, obviously
- humorous – maybe? – gem-gum sounds a bit funny/silly – reader may judge
- repetitive self rhyming – yes, gem & gum differ by just one letter
Ergo: Tip top choice of terminology – (to the opinion of the author).
Related
External links
- Terminology not to confuse with nomenclature (standardized naming schemas)
- Ontology not to confuse with epistemology (covering EE)
- Applied ontology
- Categorization
- Classification
- Concept
- Context
