this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2026
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I can tell you have a bachelor's of engineering. Not because I think you're being elitist. But because you haven't yet figured out that words are fluid and don't follow strict rules like systems do.
English is hard.
I have a B.E. as well. It took me years to word good.
You're on Lemmy so you'd be better off learning Mandarin or Russian.
Words which indicate a minimun amount of trained and proven competence or authority, such as Doctor or Police Lieutenant, are not things you can just claim willy nilly.
Dude, an Engineer drives a fucking train
I can respect that but you need to propose a new term for structural and electrical engineers to replace it if that's where we draw the line.
You're continuing to prove my point. Words can have multiple meanings. Words change over time. The definition of a word is whatever people use it as.
If tomorrow every bus driver becomes a transportation engineer, and everyone starts calling them that, then that's what engineer means.
If you cannot accept the above, you cannot properly participate in English.
Ah dangit, ok mr gatekeeper here take my license to English
If I say the word Dr. Dre, do you know who I'm talking about? If the answer is yes, then you understand that the word doctor is not always about the medical profession.
He doesn't call himself medical doctor dre or physician dre though
My doctorate of English doesn't imply that either. Still have a doctorate. Still a doctor.
Okay go down to the hospital and tell everyone you're a medical doctor. I want to see how far you make it.
"Medical" doctor. You've moved the goal posts.
Computer engineer. Software engineer. Train engineer. The qualifier is what let's you differentiate. Your claim is that the generic term only covers a subset of how people use the word.
I stated that doctor was a protected title and it is, my lack of specification matters not.