Jargon, technical terminology, or term of art, is “the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group”. An industry term is a type of technical terminology that has a particular meaning within a specific industry. Jargon is similar to slang used by a certain group or subculture. Jargon is significantly removed from the proper or formal language spoken in that location. It is commonplace for each generation to create their own jargon. Whether this is because they want to identify with each other and thus create a language of their own, or if they deliberately do not want to be understood by anybody else. An example of this is the texting slang that the specific generation has created. If one is not briefed in this new vocabulary, he would have no idea what is being communicated by “text” slang. Some words and phrases, however, become part of the a language naturally through time. An example of this would be the word “ginormous” being added to Webster’s English Dictionary in 2013. The philosopher Étienne Bonnot de Condillac observed in 1782 that “every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas”. As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment, he continued: “It seems that one ought to begin by composing this language, but people begin by speaking and writing, and the language remains to be composed.” Within each field, terms have one or more specific meanings that are not necessarily the same as those in common use. In earlier times, the term jargon would refer to trade languages used by people who spoke different native tongues to communicate, such as the Chinook Jargon. In other words, the term covers the language used by people who work in a particular area or who have a common interest. Much like slang, it can develop as a kind of shorthand, to express ideas that are frequently discussed between members of a group, though it can also be developed deliberately using chosen terms. A standard term may be given a more precise or unique usage among practitioners of a field. In many cases this causes a barrier to communication with those not familiar with the language of the field. In this way, jargon can be argot and can provide an ingroup with shibboleths. On the other hand, jargon that once was obscure outside a small ingroup can become generally known over time. For example, the terms bit, byte, and hexadecimal (which are terms from computing jargon) are now recognized by many people outside computer science.
