Jargon is when you use specialist language specific to an academic subject, profession, trade, hobby, or activity to exclude people who don’t understand it. It can feel a bit like a secret code that helps people in the ‘in’ group communicate easily while keeping the ‘out’ group confused.
When we talk about and analyse jargon in texts, it’s usually about very specialist professional spheres. You usually have to read books, go to university, or be in that job industry to understand the language of these spheres. You might even need a special license to become a professional!
Here are some very common types of jargon that you might see people talk about:
- Legal (we often call this ‘legalese’)
- Medical
- Therapy
- Scientific
- Educational
- Academic
- Linguistic
- IT
- Business
- Accounting
- Horticultural/Gardening
- Film and TV
- Economic
In fact, you could argue that this whole glossary is dedicated to helping you understand the jargon from creative and humanities subjects!
You usually only call specialist language ‘jargon’ when you want to comment on how exclusive it is or how difficult it is for the average person to understand. It is very rare to use that term when specialist language is used with a group of people who can all understand and use it properly.
You won’t find a doctor’s language being referred to as ‘jargon’ when they’re talking to other doctors. That kind of specialist language is important for them to use because it’s more precise and correct than how they might describe the same thing with high-frequency vocabulary.
On the other hand, a doctor will try to reduce their use of specialist language with a patient. Patients aren’t usually medical experts, so specialist language would exclude them. In that kind of situation, we’ll often call specialist language ‘jargon’.
Note: This glossary post contains affiliate links. If you use them, I may earn a small commission.
When Do People Use Jargon?
Jargon has plenty of uses in English.
Of course, I can’t list every single use. Otherwise, I’d have to read every single piece of text that uses jargon ever! It would be literally impossible.
However, I can give you the broad patterns of when and where people use it. That way, when you confront it in the wild, you’ll have a good idea of what the text producer is trying to do. You might even be able to use it effectively in your own texts!
Appearing Smart, Knowledgeable and Credible
The main reason why someone might use jargon is to impress their text receiver. They want to make themselves seem more intelligent and credible.
It makes sense, to be honest. You have to be pretty well-read to understand technical language – and it’s even more impressive to use it properly!
By using jargon, you’re proving to your text receiver that you’re part of a smart ‘in-group’ with experience in that field. This is especially true when you’re trying to be persuasive, such as in a speech. In that case, you might be using jargon as a way to increase your sense of ethos and make you seem like you know what you’re talking about.
There are times when people use jargon outside of their own specialist field. When they do this, they are basically trying to prove that they know a lot about other professional fields, as well. They’re basically saying, ‘Look! I’m a polymath! I’m so smart that I can understand jargon from other people’s fields!’
That’s one of the perks of using jargon. Someone doesn’t need to understand what you’re saying to be able to understand that you sound smart. They can just tell because you’re using words that sound like things they associate with that specialist field.
In fact, it’s often better if they don’t know what you mean because then it will be more impressive to them! If you’re surrounded by people who all understand 100% of the words you’ve said, it’s not jargon anymore. You’re just using appropriate words for the context.
People will often combine jargon with Sesquipedalian words that make it sound like you’ve swallowed a dictionary. The more big words you know, the more educated and well-read you are, right? Well, wrong, but we’ll come to that in a bit.
Disarming Non-Experts
The fact that jargon is exclusive can be used in your favour. When you use it with non-experts, it helps you to pull the wool over their eyes and make it seem like you know way more about the topic than you actually do. Especially if the words sound like they could be from the correct field.
We’re all guilty of falling for that assumption. For example, I know nothing about medicine. So, if you say some long word that ends in ‘itis’, it sounds enough like a medical term for me not to question it. I mean, how am I supposed to know if you’re telling the truth? I know nothing about medicine, so I have no clue if you’re using words properly – or if they’re real medical words in the first place!
My favourite example of this is from Legally Blonde. Have a look at the scene!
Here, Ella uses legal jargon (or legalese) to confuse the man. Here are some examples of the legalese she uses:
- Subject matter jurisdiction
- Habeus corpus
- Common-law marriage
- Equitable division of the assets
Anyone who understands law terms knows that she’s saying completely random, made-up things. Habeus corpus has nothing to do with this situation! However, the isn’t an expert. He has to trust that what she’s saying is accurate and that he could get into legal trouble if he doesn’t give the dog back.
Elle’s jargon increases her ethos and confuses her friend’s ex into accepting her demands.
She also sprinkles in some other big words like ‘heretofore’ to confuse him. These words aren’t legal jargon, but they are usually used in legal situations and make a lawyer’s words less accessible to people who don’t have a higher-level education.
Creating an ‘Us Vs. Them’ Mentality
As I’ve said quite a few times now, jargon is very exclusive. There has to be an ‘in-group’ and an ‘out-group’. Jargon is a way of separating people based on what they know. If you understand what the speaker is saying, you’re ‘on the inside’. You’re one of the ‘smart’ people who can be included in their group.
If you’re confused and have no clue what the speaker is saying, you’re not ‘in their group’. According to them, the text isn’t ‘for’ you, and you’re supposed to struggle to understand it. It’s on purpose. They’re trying to make it so that you can’t access the conversation.
When people use jargon in this way, they’re often trying to question your intelligence or make you feel like you don’t belong. They want you to pay attention to the fact that you’re different from them and all the people who understand them. It’s all about highlighting how you’re not the same.
I’ve seen people do this so that they can talk about something without a single person in the group understanding.
It’s kind of like code-switching to Spanish in the middle of your conversation so that the one non-Spanish speaker has no clue what you’re saying. If they didn’t want you to know you’re excluded from the conversation, they’d just have it somewhere else. They want you to be very aware.
To Cover Up Insecurity or Lack of Knowledge
As you already know, people use jargon to sound smart. If they want you to think they know what they’re talking about, they’ll throw in all the specialist language that they can. However, that doesn’t mean that they’re actually smart. In fact, someone who knows a lot about a topic doesn’t rely too heavily on jargon!
Why? Well, a confident expert doesn’t need to prove they’re an expert. They just are! There doesn’t need to be a whole lot of convincing. They have actions and credentials to prove their credibility.
Lots of people use jargon to cover up their fear that they don’t know as much as they’d like. There’s actually been research on this: overusing jargon is a sign of insecurity, not intelligence.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you’re unintelligent, though. Anyone can feel insecure from time to time – even experts! Especially when they’re experiencing impostor syndrome. We’ve all been there. Feeling insecure about your knowledge is an important part of the learning process. It encourages you to learn more!
There are two types of insecurity-based jargon use:
- The person is knowledgeable and just feels a little insecure at the moment.
- The person is trying to hide the fact that aren’t knowledgeable
These two types are going to look very different. With the first one, they’re still going to use the specialist terms properly. With the second, they might not use them right at all.
This is a very useful thing to know, especially if you’re writing a fictional character. You can overuse jargon in their dialogue to show that they don’t feel particularly secure right now. The more inappropriately they use the specialist language, the more it shows they’re putting on an act.
Why Do We Only Call it ‘Jargon’ When It’s Excluding People?
If you want to do well in English, you need to know that there’s no point in talking about a device if you’re not saying something with it. You’re past the stage where you can play Where’s Wally with literary devices. Now, everything you say has to have a point. That’s why I love talking about foregrounding so much.
That is very true with jargon. If everyone in the conversation understands the specialist technical language, there’s not much to say about it. It’s just normal language for the people in the conversation. It doesn’t foreground itself. So, there’s not much for you to put in your analysis.
Recognising something as ‘jargon’ and not just ‘specialist language’ is all about how appropriate it is for a specific setting. So, when you’re with a group of people who all understand the specialist language, it’s not jargon because it’s appropriate for everyone in your audience. On the other hand, if there are people present who feel confused and out of the loop, the language foregrounds itself. That’s when we’d call it ‘jargon’.
If you want to talk about jargon, it is important to ask yourself who the ‘outsiders’ are who wouldn’t understand it and why they’re being excluded.
So, while it is quite common to use jargon for the ethos of the speech, there is much more to it. It’s also about creating a sense of group identity and identifying who the ‘outsiders’ might be. In a persuasive text, you might do this to point out to your text receivers that you’re an expert, and they aren’t. So, they should trust your judgement.
What About When Jargon is Better for the Situation?
I have said time and time that it’s all about being exclusive. However, what about when it’s more appropriate to use jargon in a situation – even when there are people present who won’t understand? Well, there are many times when you might need to use specialist language in a situation where it excludes people.
Medical emergencies are a good example of this. When medical professionals are trying to save someone’s life, they will need to speak to each other using medical language. That’s true even if non-professionals are in the room with them. It’s more precise and accurate, communicating ideas quicker and allowing them to properly diagnose a problem.
In this case, it’s not called ‘jargon’. Why? Well, because just like I said before, whether or not something is considered ‘jargon’ depends on how appropriate it is for the situation.
When medical professionals are saving someone’s life, they don’t care if non-professionals understand what they’re saying or not. It doesn’t matter if you’re clueless. They’re not trying to exclude you to make themselves look smart. The purpose of their speech is to save a person’s life. So, using specialist language is appropriate for that situation.
In fact, doctors would foreground their language more if they didn’t use specialist language in that context. Could you imagine how confused a nurse would be if the doctor started calling all their tools ‘knives’ and ‘water bags’? So, it’s not jargon.
Is Therapy-Speak Jargon?
Yes, therapy-speak is an example of people using jargon.
What makes it frustrating for therapists and psychology professionals (as well as people who listen to them) is that people use the jargon wrong. They think they know how to use the terms properly, but they really don’t.
Therapy-speak is one of those interesting and rare cases when the people using the jargon are actually part of the ‘out-group’. They are using terms that exclude them!
So many people are guilty of it online. The one that’s most common right now is ‘gaslighting‘. People online seem to think any time someone lies to you or disagrees with you about something, they’re gaslighting you. That’s not the case. We all have different interpretations of events, so accusing someone of gaslighting over a disagreement is just wrong.
That’s what happens when the ‘out-group’ tries to use jargon as if they know what they’re talking about.
Before ‘gaslighting’, we had plenty of other therapy-speak terms that people used wrong. It seems like these terms come in and out like fashion. You might recognise ‘Stockholm Syndrome’, ‘narcissist’ and ‘triggering’ as some common examples.
Why It’s Usually Good to Avoid Jargon
I’ve already explained that jargon is when you use specialist language at inappropriate times to exclude people who aren’t in the ‘in-group’. So, unless it’s actually your intention to foreground that some of the people listening don’t fit in, why would you use it?
We’re not talking about when it’s appropriate to use specialist language here. We’ve already covered times when it’s more appropriate to use specialist language, even if not everyone present understands. What I’m saying is simple: if you could use simple language to express the same thing and include everyone, why wouldn’t you?
You have to understand a topic very well to be able to explain it to other people. That’s why people spend so long learning how to teach! So, if you can use simple language to talk about a complex idea, that’s great! It shows that you’re confident about what you’re saying. You might even be an expert – or at least very knowledgeable!
As Daniel C. Dennett states in his book, Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, ‘If I can’t explain something I’m doing to a group of bright undergraduates, I don’t really understand it myself’.
I think that’s an important principle to live by. The more you understand something, the easier it becomes to explain it. You don’t have to rely on jargon any more! You can just explain your thoughts with simple language!
If you do need to use specialist language in an explanation, explain it first. Plus, don’t overdo it. That way, you bring all of your text receivers along the ride with you.
Why do you think I have a glossary here on this site that links to my other posts, pages and courses? Because I want to make sure you know what I’m saying 100% of the time. I’m here to teach, not to confuse!
Where Can You Learn More?
As usual, I think it’s important that you don’t just trust my word for it. If you really want an idea to stick in your head, you should learn about it from as many different sources as you can. Each source will explain it in a different way and add something new. By the end, you’ll become an expert who doesn’t need to use too much jargon, too!
If you’re keen to read more, here are some links I think you should check out:
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics
- English Language & Literature for the IB Diploma Programme
- Language and Literature: MYP by Concept 2
- Literary Devices
While none of these sources explicitly say that it needs to exclude people to be considered jargon, all of them mention that it isn’t understood by people outside of that specialist field. Also, we don’t often need to call something ‘jargon’ if it’s not unusual for a specific context because it’s not foregrounding itself. There’s usually not much to say about it.
Also, check out this video! It’s about cults and cult leaders, but they talk about jargon. They say some useful things! It will help you to come to grips with a different use of it!