[ExI] Language Changing Before Our Very Eyes

[PJ Manney]

On 5/23/07, gts <gts_2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> My guess is that the idiomatic use of "issue" as a synonym for "problem"
> came to us courtesy of the software industry. I was in the software
> business back in 1982, and as far as I can remember, in those days bugs
> were always called "bugs". Then, sometime perhaps in the mid-80's or early
> 90's, bugs became "issues" --- probably the idea of some long-forgotten
> legal or marketing exec at a major software company.
>
> I don't have an issue with "issue" because it really is the better word.
> It implies something close to "controversy" (the word "issue" has this
> legitimate connotation in the legal profession) and controversies do not
> imply judgements of fault or even the necessary existence of tangible
> problems. We cannot know if a real problem exists, and where or what the
> problem is, or who or what is at fault for the problem, until we
> understand the *controversy* i.e., until we understand the *issue*.
>
> Sometimes the bug is with the customer's wetware rather than with the
> software, and "wetware-bug" is close to the idiomatic use of the word
> "issue" to mean "mental problem". So there is at least a bit of logic to
> the evolution of the psycho-babble connotation.

You gotta laugh at the "it's not a bug, it's a feature!" attitude.
It's technopoly at it's best.

Okay guys, here it is from the Online Etymology Dictionary, (c) 2001
Douglas Harper.  We were all wrong:

In the "legal sense of 'point in question at the conclusion of the
presentation by both parties in a suit' (1308 in Anglo-Fr.) led to
transf. sense of 'a point to be decided' (1836)."

One could easily interpret a legal problem as a legal issue.

So the problem > issue issue is older than any of us even realize.

Shakespeare is rolling in his grave.

PJ