Today's Word "Heterarchy"
An organizational structure resembling a network
heterarchy \HE-tehr-arh-key\ (noun) - Originally, today's word meant "rule by aliens or foreigners" but it is gaining currency today in reference to a form of institutional organization based on distributed intelligence and collaborative decisions rather than hierarchical structures. A heterarchy is an organizational structure resembling a network rather than the top-down tree of a hierarchy.
"Were an alien race to invade and conquer Earth, it would have to establish a heterarchy in the old sense of the word: rule by a foreign conqueror."
The new meaning of today's word comes by false analogy with "hierarchy." "Hierarchy" was borrowed from Greek hierarkhes "high priest" based on hieros "holy" + arkhes "arch." A heterarchy in the new sense has no arch by definition and Greek heteros "other" holds neither an antonymous nor any other semantic relation to "hieros." Like "homophobia" (which really means fear of people or similarities), it is a lexical misconstruction gaining wide acceptance.
"Were an alien race to invade and conquer Earth, it would have to establish a heterarchy in the old sense of the word: rule by a foreign conqueror."
The new meaning of today's word comes by false analogy with "hierarchy." "Hierarchy" was borrowed from Greek hierarkhes "high priest" based on hieros "holy" + arkhes "arch." A heterarchy in the new sense has no arch by definition and Greek heteros "other" holds neither an antonymous nor any other semantic relation to "hieros." Like "homophobia" (which really means fear of people or similarities), it is a lexical misconstruction gaining wide acceptance.
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