Language Barriers

• Sailing. Gosh, every word a salty sailor says sounds like another language. Boom? Jib? Misen? Keel? Ketch? Sloop? Poop deck? Even if we've figured out port and starboard, we're in the dark on much of the rest unless having been initiated into the world of wind-powered boating.

• Medicine. In this world, some of the terms are not necessarily jargon. They are the names of body parts or procedures – sometimes in Latin, sometimes in DocSpeak – that we aren't meant to understand. The fibias and tibias are, in the end, just bones. Say it that way, won't you? Instead of some cutitoffofme procedure, tell me you're going to go through my stomach to trim my toenails.

• Law. Latin phrases abound here, and there's a reason some of us would like to call Latin a dead language (it's actually a dread language for us who don't speak it). It's a complicated world, but nolo contiendre or habeus corpus or better explained by "no contest" or "show me the suspect." I always thought Habeus Corpus was what college students did during Spring Break on the Texas coast. In some cases – literally "produce the body" – that's true!

• Journalism. I know some of the jargon involved, being a practioner of the craft/art/slave trade. From heds, ledes, graphs and lin-o-types, to blue lines, jumps, etc. etc. there is much that has been set aside because of technology. A lin-o-type, for example, was a device used to set "lines of type" using little lead letters (think typewriters). Now only the most stagnant news organizations use anything other than computers and digital technology.

• Computers. The IT guy is sneering at you because he thinks you're dumb. Well, if you aren't a member of the Digirati, in some ways you are. I'm dumb, too, so I don't know much about scripting, HTML, mother boards, father boards, keyboards, etc. I use the stuff; I don't build or work on it. Blogging has a subset of its own jargon, but I only know enough to be dangerous. I push buttons, stuff happens, no biggie. The word "blog" itself is jargonistic; if you don't know what it is, you might think it describes an animal that is part dog, part something.

• Interior Design. The explosion of home-decorating shows on TV lets us glimpse some of the jargon and concepts of this strange world. Shams, duvets, fringe ... these are things a normal person should not know. Unless Ferrari's new sports car is the Duvet GT. Feng shui and its foreign-language terms makes me want to put all my furniture in the middle of the room and set fire to it (burn shui).

The list goes on. I mean, even McDonald's has its "secret sauce." Heard any good jargon lately? Don't be afraid to share it!