As humans, we build words, and new words can be built at any time, but words can be designed for purposes beyond conveying meaning Take a word like ‘entomophagy’. It just means ‘eating insects’. This word has not clarified some previously ill-defined thing: the compound word ‘insect-eating’ works much better. But, the purpose of ‘entomophagy’ was never about clarifying meaning. It, like many other words from academia, big business and science, is about signalling insider status within an exclusive club I experienced this when working in high finance, which is full of jargon terms that serve solely to create an aura of inaccessibility to outsiders, and a glow of exclusivity to insiders. For example, the term ‘liquidity’ is actually fucking useless to describe what it’s trying to describe in finance, but financiers love using it In fact, these types of words are built as defences to ward outsiders off, and their sole function is to signal something about the user. Much like you might have a secret doorknock and password to enter the halls of a secret cult, these words are used as keys to enter niche communities. You get access to the academic conference by using words like ‘subjectivity’ and ‘affect’, much like you get access to high finance through using phrases like ‘going long’ in place of ‘buying’