James Baquet
Ming is chatting with her classmate Mark in the common room of their dorm.
Ming: Hi, Mark. Can you help me?
Mark: Sure! What’s up?
Ming: My teacher gave us pairs of words, and we’re supposed to describe the differences. In a lot of cases, the dictionary is no help!
Mark: Should be easy enough. What’s the first pair?
Ming: “Bug” and “insect.”
Mark: Oooo! Harder than I thought!
Ming: Why?
Mark: Well, because bug is both more specific and less specific than insect.
Ming: I don’t get it.
Mark: I don’t blame you! Okay, an insect is a small, six-legged animal, right?
Ming: Of course. Their body is in three segments, and they often — but not always — have two pairs of wings.
Mark: Right. Now, technically, a bug is a certain type of insect.
Ming: So that’s what you mean by “more specific.”
Mark: Yes. They’re from a certain group called the “heteroptera.”
Ming: Okay.
Mark: But here’s the thing. We also use “bug” to describe things that aren’t even insects.
Ming: Like spiders, maybe? Centipedes? Things like that?
Mark: Exactly. And even bacteria and viruses.
Ming: Oh, like the flu bug!
Mark: Right. And then there are computer bugs, which are problems in the system.
Ming: Wow, that’s really not specific.
Mark: See what I mean? Okay, give me another pair.
Ming: I hope this one’s easier! What’s the difference between a “college” and a “university?”
Mark: Yikes! Another hard one. Okay, first some history: The first universities were divided up into colleges.
Ming: So a college was smaller than a university.
Mark: That’s right. Then what happened was, in some universities, all the colleges would close except one.
Ming: So then the college and the university were one-and-the-same.
Mark: Precisely. So people started using the word “college” for small universities.
Ming: Is that still true?
Mark: Mainly, especially in the States and Scotland. But in everyday language, most Americans will say, “Did you go to college?”
Ming: Instead of, “Did you go to university?”
Mark: That’s right. Even though the answer may be, “Yes, I did. I went to Such-and-Such University.”
Ming: So it was a university, but they still called it a college?
Mark: Yes. The two are pretty much interchangeable in American English, though there’s still a feeling that a university is bigger or more complex than a college.
Ming: I see.
Mark: Also, some small training centers use “college,” when they could never call themselves a university.
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