As a student in Cambridge, I am occasionally overwhelmed by the amount of superfluous and frankly irritating words that get bandied about by fellows and students alike. I am particularly needled by the widespread practice of using words to confuse rather than to disambiguate. (Meta-point: maybe it's a matter of perspective; perhaps somebody could legitimately make the same criticism of my use of the word 'disambiguate'. The language is a slippery beast.) There are lots of examples of such words, but the one that's particularly getting my goat at the moment is 'specificity'.
As an illustration of my frustration, consider the following definition of specificity from Information Retrieval Design: "Specificity has been a rather slippery term with respect to its meaning and applications in library and information science." Oh, the irony.
Sample conversation about specificity:
X: "You really need to incorporate more specificity into your argument."
Me: "You mean, I really need to be more specific. Why didn't you just say that? WHY?"
Books, computers and chairs are sent flying as I leap for X's throat, gibbering with rage.
Well, maybe not, but it's only a matter of time. Jargonauts, you have been warned.
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