I am at a conference and heard a videotaped talk where the woman used a word which means that society is volatile, chaotic, ambiguous. She gave us no notes, and I couldn't find the word when I tried to look it up because I don't know how to spell it. I'd love to know more about it. It sounded like "woocah" or "voocah."

Does anyone know what it might be?

K: Could this be it

http://onelook.com/?w=vuca&ls=a

or

http://onelook.com/?w=wuca&ls=a

Those were abbreviations or acronyms. I wonder if it's a foreign word?

Ach so they were

So do I

However if pronounced as a word the (second) following acronym fits

http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?acronym=VUCA

Could it be "vulgar"?? Did the speaker have a foreign accent ?

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Does anyone know what it might be?

Surely the speaker herself would be the best source for an explanation. Is she available? Google? Wikipedia?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jerry thomas,

No, the person didn't have an accent, and I am fairly certain the word is not "vulgar." I suppose Dale could be right, which would be disappointing, really. I had expected that it was a new word with an interesting etymology. She very definitely said it was a word, and not an acronym, though I know that acronyms evolve into words.

The presentation was a videotape of the speaker, so she wasn't available afterwards. However, I will email her to see if it is that acronym.

That sounds right to me: "Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity." That meets your definition, with "uncertainty" subbing for "chaos," and "complexity" thrown in for good measure.

I have sent her an email about it. However, would you call VUCA a word? I can understand if it's well-known, like snafu, but I don't think a little-known acronym should be considered a word.

Once again, I bring up that question about what is a word. I suspect I will never really know for sure.

Acronyms are, by definition, what you get when intialisms form pronounceable words.

radar
sonar
NATO
AIDS
scuba
laser

and so on.

I think VUCA would fall into this category.

Bob, had you heard of VUCA? If it's not widely recognized, I can't compare it to the words you mentioned. No one around me at that conference had heard the word before.

No, but my point is that an acronym is by definition pronounceable as a word. And ALL of those words were used for the first time by someone somewhere.

IT seems, from the context, that this is by far the most likely explanation of what she said. My own job is teaching ESOL and that's another one. I would never say that I teach English For Speakers of Other Languages. Is ESOL a word? I'd say so. Wouldn't you?

Was the speaker giving the talk specifically to you, or was it originally intended for an audience of people in the same line as her? It seems likely to me that she was using jargon. It would probably be well understood by people in the same field, but she should have explained it for non-specialist listeners. It's an easy mistake to make, using jargon to non-specialists; sometimes it's difficult to remember that a word is jargon.

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Is ESOL a word? I'd say so. Wouldn't you?

Yes, I would (though I say it with the initials as not as one word). But we all know that acronym or initialism or whatever it is.

VUCA is different. Many haven't heard of it. Putting ESOL into Google I get almost 3M hits. Putting VUCA in, I get 6,500, and some of that was for the Valparaiso University Center for the Arts.

Arnie, this videotaped lecture was for nurse educators, so I was a typical audience member. Nobody there knew what the speaker had meant by VUCA. Nobody posting in this thread knows it, either. I don't think, at this point in time, VUCA can be considered a word. Perhaps as it becomes more well known, that will change.

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
Is ESOL a word? ... But we all know that acronym or initialism or whatever it is.

For the record, I didn't. I knew ESL, but not ESOL.

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this videotaped lecture was for nurse educators, so I was a typical audience member.

So, by the sound of it, she was guilty of using jargon without explanation.

FWIW, it's still a word, despite being jargon (and an acronym). Just not a widely-known word ...

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
VUCA is different. Many haven't heard of it. Putting ESOL into Google I get almost 3M hits. .

But surely if part of the criteria for something beibg a word is that it's commonly known then none of our bluffing game words are words.

Isn't any collection of letters that you can pronounce and that has meaning a word? Haven't I read this what-is-a-word debate on this board before? ;-)

WM

Yes, but unlike most "discussions" on this board, I changed my mind and conceded (in chat) that the e-word, was a word, but just not one I like or would use.

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So, by the sound of it, she was guilty of using jargon without explanation.

Not jargon from her (or my) field. I have emailed her to find out if she knows any history on the acronym.

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Yes, but unlike most "discussions" on this board, I changed my mind and conceded (in chat) that the e-word, was a word, but just not one I like or would use.

Interesting you should say that, z. Just recently I was having a conversation with a rather condescending, arrogant person, and I slipped in the word "epicaricacy." Either she has quite a vocabulary or she is a good actress (I am sure it's the latter) because she didn't bat an eyelash and acted like she knew the word. It made me want to try it again sometime.

Here is my response from the videotaped speaker:

"VUCA is an acronym that I learned at the Board Source meeting last December. 'Word' was used loosely - I don't know the derivation - the lecturer used it to describe the current environment."

So you were correct, Dale. I had conjured up in my mind some exciting foreign word with a rich history. Oh well.