Competence signal

Office anthropology™ Go Premium The JC puts on his pith-helmet, grabs his butterfly net and a rucksack full of marmalade sandwiches, and heads into the concrete jungleIndex: Click ᐅ to expand: Work anthropology Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Requests? Insults? We’d love to 📧 hear from you. Sign up for our newsletter.

Wroot /ruːt/ (n.) A short little berk who thinks that by pulling on his pipe and gazing shrewdly at you he will give the impression that he is infinitely wise and 5 ft 11 in.

—Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, The Meaning of Liff

Anything calculated to make you seem clever, wise and six-foot tall. Jargon, buzzwords, legalese: that kind of thing. It is funny how the same people who complain about legalese on LinkedIn love to relentlessly leverage the value-chain, if you catch my drift.

See also

• Semantic code project
• Sexual selection
• Plain English