This is a little off-topic for a blog about sewing, but it's not really. Learning to sew has involved learning a bunch of new terms. Like "right side" and "wrong side" for fabrics. I still find those terms a little more judgmental than strictly necessary. Especially since the "right side" of fabric is just the side I want showing. That doesn't make the other side "wrong" - unless I accidentally sew it in upside down (or is it backwards?) so that the part I want showing isn't showing. But, I've made my peace with "right side" and "wrong side" for now. It's a tenuous peace. I still think there's a better option out there. (I lean heavily toward "visible side" and "hidden side.")
Anyway, besides the fact that there are lots of terms unique to sewing, I write technical documents as a full-time job (think "How To" guides for repairing, say, helicopters). I also went to law school for a while. So I'm very much concerned about what words really mean, how they should be used, and how they shouldn't.
Before we start down this path, I do understand that English is an ever-changing language and none of us speaks English the way it was spoken even 100 years ago. I have no problem with creating new words to express new ideas. A hundred years ago, we didn't need a word for the Internet. Now we do. And, we have the word "Internet." But. . . when there's a perfectly good English word which already exists to describe something, I am adamantly opposed to concocting weird new words for the same purpose. There's no need to come up with a new word for "horse." We all know what a horse is and we have a word that clearly conveys the concept of "horse" to other English speakers. It's "horse." Sure, we have synonyms, and those are very valuable when you need to convey some subtle meaning or put a word in a specific context. "Pony," or "equine," for example. But, those have very specific meanings beyond the general idea of a horse. They're not just gratuitous, made-up words for the same thing.
One word which seems to have gotten legs in the craft world lately and which I consider wholly unnecessary is the word "upcycle." I despise that word. It has no specific meaning, and it's loaded with judgment. To "upcycle" something is simply to use it for a different purpose. We already have a word for "use." It's "use." But, besides being unnecessary, the word "upcycle" also suggests that whatever new purpose you've given that thing is somehow better ("up") than its original purpose. If you turn a pair of pants into a backpack, is the backpack "better" than the pants? Not if you need a pair of pants. It's just something different that you made using pants. Just like using cloth to make a pair of pants. You wouldn't say you "upcycled" the cloth into pants. So, you'll never hear me use the term "upcycle." If I make a backpack out of a pair of jeans, I'll just say that I *used* a pair of jeans to make a backpack. No weird, new jargon-y term needed.
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