semaphorism – n. a conversational hint that you have something personal to say on the subject but don’t go any further – an emphatic nod, a half-told anecdote, an enigmantic “I know the feeling” – which you place into conversations like those little flags that warn diggers of something buried unerground: an unexploded bomb, a sacred burial ground, or a high-voltage cable that secretly powers your house.
The longer I work with customers in different environments and present at different events, the more I hear lots of semaphorisms from different people. They hint and half-tell war stories of things that are broken.
These could be technical things or cultural things. Those items that frustrate you or embarrass you, or maybe are just maddening to you. Often these are things that you might not want to completely disclose, but just provide enough info that the rest of us an empathize.
Or be glad we’re not experiencing them.
From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows