Vocabulary: jargon

Tutoring English, words about words are always favourites. The tutor mentions jargon.

I first heard the word jargon in grade 9: our social studies teacher (a very good one), at the beginning of the year, pointed out that every field has its own jargon. Nobody knew what that meant, which I imagine he was expecting.

“Jargon is a set of words that perhaps only people in that field use, or else they mean something different in that context than to other people,” he explained. (Those probably weren’t his exact words; this was 38 years ago.) He continued that social studies has its own jargon, such as economy, natural resources, and material culture. He pointed out that we’d be using those words in social studies class, although perhaps we’d never used them elsewhere. Hence, they were social studies jargon.

I had to admit I’d learned something that day, though still didn’t realize the importance of jargon: it selects or excludes people based on their awareness of it.