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concurrent meanings are similar to each other, and b) if the two
terms often appear in the same texts. In these two cases different
terms should be found to express the different senses of an
ambiguous term.
Synonymy is a strain on memory and gives the impression of
confusion. Technical language should not favour variety but rather
clarity.
Most words that have an international written form derive
from Latin or Greek. That is why they do not seem odd in the
Romance languages or in English, which already contain a large
number of words deriving from Greek and Latin. In other
languages, such as the other Germanic languages or the Slavic
languages, both the international words and the compound words
based on native elements should be admitted as synonyms of one
another. In these languages the native words are usually given
official status and are thus found in laws, whereas the international
words are better suited to communication with foreigners.
When words or concepts are already rooted in use, they
should not be changed unless there are important reasons to do so
and there is some chance that the change will be accepted.
Changes that do not gain wide acceptance lead to terminological
divergence (i.e. new synonyms) and ambiguous terms.
It is particularly difficult to achieve widespread acceptance
of a change in meaning. In most cases a change of this nature leads
to ambiguous terms. In this situation creating a new term to
designate a new concept is recommended.
New organizations of terminology standartisation are
Infoterm (International Information Centre for Terminology)
created in 1971 by Unesco; a terminology association that has
since disbanded; and the creation of the Terminology Commission
of the International Association of Applied Linguistics. On a
different level we should also mention the founding of the Unión
Latina, with headquarters in Santo Domingo, the Dominican
Republic, which includes all countries speaking Romance

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