Word Gripe of the Day

"Temporary"

Years ago, my father teased me suggesting that the definition of "temporary" was "without a defined endpoint in time", and the definition of "permanent" was "without a defined endpoint in time". I think he brought this up more than once over the years, and at one point it occurred to me to reply that perhaps he needed better definitions.

At the time, I thought he was deliberately choosing terrible definitions to be cute, but I don't think most people have better definitions. If I had to come up with definitions, I think the distinction would have to do with expectations after a sufficiently long time into the future - if the expectation is that the phenomenon would come to a stop by then, you probably mean "temporary". If the phenomenon has gone on without interruption or sign of decay, then that's "permanent".

But I don't think people really think about these words - I heard a weather report mentioning that it was raining, but that it was likely to be temporary. Erm, I certainly hope so. And employment is sometimes described as being temporary. Well, for my case alone, I only plan to be alive temporarily, so my employment is also constrained to be a temporary arrangement.