[ExI] Language Changing Before Our Very Eyes

[Lee Corbin]

Randall writes

> Among my circle of (physical) acquaintances, "issues"
> has been in use since at least the early 90s, sometimes
> as a conscious word choice.  If someone has problems,
> one is expected to "solve" them.  You can live with
> issues, and learn to deal with them without feeling a
> need to fix them.

Very interesting.  I approve of the existence of additional
shades of meaning!  For example, it's good to have a
difference between "imply" and "infer".  (I could cope 
with an inference engine, but an "implication engine"
would be another thing entirely   :-)

Were only that it was this usage that has crept up on us
everywhere! In technical meanings at work, the usage is
inevitably "problem that needs to be solved", or, at best,
an issue is something that needs to be resolved.

So for the most part it combines an urge to be trendy with
an urge to substitute ephemisms to, in this case, dampen
the impact of a word.

But I hope that your point becomes more and more correct
over time, and a real difference emerges between "issue" an
"problem".

Lee