🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <brewer-ya023180001410961342490001@news.his.com>,
Robert "Doc" Coleman <brewer@his.com> wrote:
>In article <53s7p8$jj6@solaris.cc.vt.edu>, adamf@vtaix.cc.vt.edu (Adam
>Finkelstein) wrote:
>> In article <53orj2$62o@wanda.vf.pond.com>,
>> Matthew T. Russotto <russotto@wanda.vf.pond.com> wrote:
>> >Remember: Dioxin is organic!
>> Gee you are so slick. You made a funny chemistry pun.
>> Do you know how hard some farmers work to be legally "organic". They do
>> this by becoming certified organic by their state's certifiers. 
>...
>Ev>Actually, we need to come up with another word to use for products that
>have been grown and processed without the use of chemical additives. 
>Organic is a chemistry term that refers to the presence of carbon in a
>compound.  Water is not organic.  Diamonds are.  It's sloppy language to
>try to use organic to mean "naturally produced".  Someone needs to coin a
>new word.
>Doc
>
>-- 

Your not the first person to think of this; however,   
language is sloppy to begin with.  Organic is a word with several
meanings depending on the context. If a particular discipline
gives a word a precise technical definition, it doesn't follow that
other meanings for the word are no longer correct or that new usages
can't develop.  There are numerous examples of words which have been 
appropriated from common usage and been given precise technical
meanings.  Organic is just one example where newer usage of the word 
has developed based on older meanings of the word unrelated to the 
technical usage.

In fact, organic has a different technical meaning in the field of Law than
it does in chemistry.

-Craig

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Craig G. Hocker, Ph. D., Rm. 283, Gilmer Hall, Department of Biology 
and NSF Center for Biological Timing,  University of Virginia 
Charlottesville, VA  22903-2477               PHONE:  (804) 982-5609