Terminology and laundry – two never-ending tasks

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terminology and laundry

 

Today we recommend all terminologists out there to read this entertaining article by Wal Swisher, in which she compares Terminology and laundry – two never-ending tasks with the latter cursed by most people, but loved by Swisher herself. The article (released by acrolinx, a server-based content optimization software) amusingly highlights the main feature of Terminology work: continuity. The ironic way in which Swisher describes her work made me think of Terminology as something much deeper than laundry, namely life itself! As life goes on, there will always be something we await eagerly, something we fear deeply, just to get over it eventually, like we get over our laundry. As life goes on, people will continue to communicate and contexts will change, thus terms will never cease to change their meaning. Swisher’s laundry metaphor is incredibly accurate as she illustrates Terminology work as a daily and unstoppable task, just like life itself.

https://www.acrolinx.com/blog/terminology-is-still-just-like-laundry/

 

 

Edited by Lissa Haid-Schmallenberg – Study Visitor at the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament (Luxembourg). Lissa is a student at the University of Luxembourg and currently enrolled in the trilingual Master Learning and Communication in multilingual and multicultural Contexts. She holds a Bachelor degree in Social and Cultural Education from the University of Bologna, Italy.