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Code word (figure of speech)

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This article is about the concept generally, for its meaning specific to politics, see Dog-whistle politics.

A code word is a word or a phrase designed to convey a predetermined meaning to certain partisan or privileged listeners that yet sounds inoffensive to an average listener not aware of the coded meaning. The use of this particular rhetorical device in a knowing attempt to deceive large groups of people is then disingenuous.

Professional

Professionals may use code words to send messages to one another in the presence of a client or customer. For example, a customer support professional may say "the problem was with the PEBKAC", (meaning "Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair", in other words the end user) or "it was an ID 10 t error" ("ID10t" meaning "idiot" in leet).

Medical

There is a wide range of hospital emergency codes, usually based on colors not strictly standardized but including common terms such as "code blue" to summon the cardiac arrest team. Terms like "code red" and "code blue" are also commonly used in hospital settings to alert staff to fires or electrical problems, as well as "code brown" to describe a patient's involuntary loss of bowel control, without scaring other clients. Alternatively, a doctor or nurse may page "Dr. Brown" or a similar fictitious person as a covert request for immediate security when dealing with a potentially combative patient.

Similarly a doctor may refer to a suspected case of tuberculosis as "Koch's Disease" in order to avoid alarming patients.

Some medical nicknames are derogatory, such as GOMER for "Get Out of My Emergency Room".

Commercial

Wal-Mart uses a system of code words to communicate with employees without alarming customers; for example, "Code Brown" signifies gunfire on the premises. [1]

Movie theater employees may say "Mr. Johnson is in theater number three" to indicate that there is a fire or smoke in that theater. The need for such a code word is obvious since even the idea that there may be a fire in a crowded theater must be kept from the theatergoers. Nightclubs and bars often use the name Mr. Sands.

Law enforcement

Police also use the 10-code system.

Emergency rescue workers or police officers may say "There is a 'K'" for dead body.

Military and intelligence

Military and intelligence organizations commonly use code words or nicknames to conceal the meaning of plans, operations, or techniques. For example, Operation Overlord was the well-known Allied code name for the invasion of northwest Europe in World War II. The more tightly guarded Operation Neptune was the code word for the actual beach invasion in the Battle of Normandy.

Highly classified operations, requiring access beyond that authorized by a basic security clearance, generically may be called "codeword", implying they are a Special Access Program (SAP) or classified information in the United States Sensitive Compartmented [intelligence] Information (SCI) [2].

Informal code word

An informal code word is a term used, without formal agreement and in many cases without any prior agreement, with the intention of communicating more to one or more listeners or readers, who are predisposed to see its double meaning, than to another or others.

Expectant parents, for instance, may refer, within hearing of their first child, to "our friend", meaning either the fetus or the anticipated child. At the first use, those words may be understood that way by the listening parent, without assistance; on the other hand, they also might instead be explained, pre-emptively or in response to perceived incomprehension, by a wink that means "That's a code word", or by a nod toward the pregnant mother's abdomen.

Informal code words can find use in propaganda, distinct from use of euphemistic code words to delay or avoid emotional responses in the audience. They may be intended to be construed as generalized platitudes by the majority of listeners, but as quite specific promises by those for whom the specific wording was crafted. For instance, a reference in late-20th century America to "places like Pearl Harbor and Bataan" (while omitting mention of Normandy) would seem to many a vague expression of respect for World War II veterans, but would often mean "I won't trust Japan or the Japanese" to veterans of the Pacific Theater, and their relatives old enough to have followed the news and propaganda of the war.

See also

Examples

References

  1. ^ AZCentral.com; last accessed October 31 2006.
  2. ^ [http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/nispom_dod_overprint.pdf Department of Defense Overprint to the National Industrial Security Program, February 1995

Usage examples:

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