Barry Eisler - On Bullshit

Buzz, Balls & Hype : Guest Blogger Barry Eisler - On Bullshit:

"You might have noticed that Iraqi insurgents never use bombs against our troops, only Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs. Tell me, what is a bomb but an explosive device? Isn't 'explosive device' the very definition of a bomb? As for the 'improvised' part, this gets stuck in there to suggest that insurgent bombs aren't as good as ours -- they're not even worthy of the bomb moniker, for one thing, and beyond that, they're just improvised -- you know, cobbled together and presumably of inferior bomb quality. They do seem to work well at killing people, though, just like... well, just like bombs!

...I'm no linguist, but my guess is that the reason the word "bomb" was invented was to save us all from the trouble of having to call the things explosive devices. (Airlines, take note: the word "now" was invented so we wouldn't have to walk around saying "at this time." Lawyers, you might also be curious to know that a 12-month period is popularly known as a year). Guideline: when they start using the definitions of words instead of the words themselves, it's a sign of ridiculous self-importance and of other bullshit, too."