Is IT Time to retire 'edge' from our IT vocabulary?
There may be a good reason to not do so, which presents immediately following the header/title:
"The term [edge] has become so ambiguous it's verging on irrelevance."
What is it to be "verging?" It's to be on the verge of.
So to be on the "edge" of, (if not just synonymous with to be on the "verge" of), doesn't need to be "retired" so much that IT just needs a new "job description."
A major reason "edge" may have become so overused is out of a desire for an alternative to "verge."
(I may be wrong on that point, to a greater or lesser extent. I could just be "going out on a limb," as the idiom goes.)
But let's look at things from the perspective of where the "verge" is coming from, so to speak.
We could take just plain literally, and do a "quick dip," (which would be like jumping off the "edge" to do a "deep dive," but at the shallow end of the pool), into the etymology of "verge."
"Verge," from the ONLINE ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY:
verge (n.)
"edge, rim," mid-15c.,
from Old French verge "twig, branch; measuring rod; penis; rod or wand of office" (12c.),
hence, from the last sense, "scope, territory dominated" (as in estre suz la verge de "be under the authority of"), from Latin virga "shoot, rod, stick, slender green branch," of unknown origin.
Hmm ... "verge" actually comes off as being much more ambiguous a word, (all-around), than "edge."
"Verge" is virtually leaning on either "edge" or "rim" to establish its meaning.
But if "edge" needs a "job" that "verge" is not doing, why not give it a mirrored position in the adjoining office?
If the term "edge" has become so ambiguous that it's on the verge of being irrelevant,
then we can say the term "verge" has become so concise that it's on the "edge" of being relevant.
To demonstrate that concept being applied, let's use the question posed as an example (in the article) for an example (in this context):
"What the heck is an 'edge appliance'?"
It's an appliance that is on the "verge" of being either relevant or irrelevant, but is neither, so long as it remains an "edge" appliance.
All we are doing with that is just "going all the way" on "edge." Rather than going through the (likely fruitless) effort of trying to expunge "edge" for its unfathomably shallow ambiguity, simply identify "edge" as being undecidable. Rather than irrelevant, it becomes absolutely necessary to the vocabulary, while it has no value to anything which the vocabulary represents.
Otherwise, the only other candidate for the position of "edge" would be "verge," and we'd REALLY hate to have to give that term "the axe," after it gets split down the middle and has to do the work of ambiguity for both sides of, (where we like and don't like), the way it's being used.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
