Semantic diffusion over time erodes all useful novel words until they are dull.
- Semantic diffusion over time erodes all useful novel words until they are dull.
- Every time that someone uses a word, there's some chance they mis-use it in subtle ways.
- This is kind of like an entropic process.
- People use new words when they are novel and useful.
- The more that they are novel and useful, the more they get shared, the more they become eroded.
- Over time the equilibrium is for them to become as useless and dull as the average word.
- Words that are not broadly useful have this happen more slowly.
- For example, vibecoding has been eroding quickly.
- But academic jargon from a specific domain erodes more slowly.