A buzzword (also fashion word and vogue word) is a vague idiom, usually a neologism, that is common to managerial, technical, administrative, and political work environments. Although meant to impress the listener with the speaker's pretense to knowledge, buzzwords render sentences opaque, difficult to understand and questionable, because the buzzword does not mean what it denominates, yet does mean other things it ought not mean. Dictionary.com Buzzword Definition George Orwell, in "Politics and the English Language," wrote that people use buzzwords because they are convenient. It is much easier to copy the words and phrases that someone invented than it is to come up with one's own. Politics and the English Language
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A buzzword (also fashion word and vogue word) is a vague idiom, usually a neologism, that is common to managerial, technical, administrative, and political work environments. Although meant to impress the listener with the speaker's pretense to knowledge, buzzwords render sentences opaque, difficult to understand and questionable, because the buzzword does not mean what it denominates, yet does mean other things it ought not mean. Dictionary.com Buzzword Definition George Orwell, in "Politics and the English Language," wrote that people use buzzwords because they are convenient. It is much easier to copy the words and phrases that someone invented than it is to come up with one's own. Politics and the English Language
Buzzwords differ from jargon; the speaker tries to impress the listener with obscure meanings, while jargon (ideally) has a defined technical meaning—if only to the given specialists; however, the advertising hyperbole written to sell new technologies, ironically, often converts technical (machine) terms into buzzwords, that then are used by the salesman in selling something to the listener. In the event, mainstream usage of buzzwords, fashion words, and vogue words does register some to the dictionary; however, once in the dictionary, the buzzword's meaning(s) might no longer correspond with the mainstream and "street" usages.
Reasons for using buzzwords
- Thought-control via intentional vagueness. In management, by stating organization goals with opaque words of unclear meaning; their positive connotations prevent questioning of intent, especially when many buzzwords are used. (See newspeak)
- To inflate the trivial to importance and stature.
- To impress a judge or an examiner by seeming to know a legal psychologic theory or a quantum physics principle, by name-dropping it, e.g. "cognitive dissonance", the "Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle".
- To camouflage chit-chat saying nothing.
Individual examples
Below are a few examples of common buzzwords. For a more complete list, see list of buzzwords.
- Dynamic
- EmpowermentBuzzword Hell
- EnterpriseEvolt: Buzzword Bingo
- FrameworkBuzzword Hell
- ImmersionN-Gage At E3 Showcases Immersive Games And Next-Generation Mobile Gaming
- Leverage
- Long TailThe Register: The Long Tail's maths begin to crumble
- Next Generation
- Paradigm"The Buzzword Bingo Book: The Complete, Definitive Guide to the Underground Workplace Game of Doublespeak", author: Benjamin Yoskovitz, publisher: Villard, ISBN-13: 978-0375753480
- Paradigm shiftCnet.com's Top 10 Buzzwords
- ProactiveMaine Today - Business: Business buzzword hall of fame
- Synergy
- Web 2.0
- Tipping Point (political)
