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Doesn't a word enter the jargon when it is accepted by a some 'critical mass' of the jargon's users? And don't you think that even though this principle may be subject to regulation by governing bodies in professional circles, in wider or less formal ones, a word enters the language when it finds some number of users? (For the sake of argument, let's say those users are *not members of the same family.) Do you think this proposition is extreme? One way or another, I don't think that in saying that language is, in this sense, democratic, one is necessarilly invoking a majoritarian rule. Ideally, democracies also protect the interests -- and so, here, usages -- of minorities. Or?
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