This discussion about 'schizophrenic' mostly feels like déjà vu, but the point about shingles, while amusing, misses the serious point that Tom is making. I agree that most everyone knows that the medical condition has nothing at all to do with roofing shingles (the etymologies of both words are interesting -- look them up). But not everyone yet understands that schizophrenia has nothing to do with 'split personality', as a careless folk-etymology might lead one to suppose. But this false meaning is indeed the one reinforced by the usage in category theory (and the coinage may have been based on the misunderstanding). Leaving aside this potential reinforcement of a misunderstanding, I do agree that people experienced in category theory will recognize the intended categorical meaning, however inapt the coinage may be. Todd ----- Original Message ----- From: "Fred E.J. Linton" <fejlinton@usa.net> To: <categories@mta.ca> Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2011 10:06 AM Subject: categories: Re: Dualities arising via pairs of schizophrenic objects
To redeploy some recent words of Tom Leinster, shingles is (as I know from painful first-hand experience) "a serious and often frightening condition."
Yet I would not go so far as to insist that roofing shingles or siding shingles be outfitted with some other name, or to urge doctors or lawyers to refrain from speaking of "hanging out their shingles" when they open their practices.
I think intelligent people can be trusted to understand even potentially ambiguous words in a correct, mature, context-driven way.
Cheers, -- Fred Linton
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