https://philoserf.com/tags/coding/Recent content in Coding on Mark AyersHugoenMark AyersMon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://philoserf.com/posts/semantic-diffusion-in-software-terminology/Mon, 09 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://philoserf.com/posts/semantic-diffusion-in-software-terminology/<p>Martin Fowler coined Semantic Diffusion in 2006 with this definition: Semantic diffusion occurs when you have a word coined by a person or group, often with a good definition, but then spread through the wider community in a way that weakens that definition. This weakening risks losing the definition entirely—and with it any usefulness to the term.</p> <p>A term is coined with a clear, bounded definition. Someone names something that didn&rsquo;t have a name before. The definition works because it marks a meaningful boundary. But then the term spreads into wider use, and in that process, the definition dissolves. Not through malice or incomprehension, but through drift. The term starts to cover phenomena it wasn&rsquo;t designed to cover. Eventually it becomes so diffuse that it stops doing useful work. The precision dies.</p>