extinction
n.— «But the thing is, as Natasha points out, the language of the slot machine industry belies its ultimate aims. There’s a term bandied about at the trade shows: “extinction.” We need to design for extinction, we need to reduce time-to-extinction, and so on. What’s extinction? That’s the moment that the customer—the gambler sitting at the slot machine—runs out of money. The wallet, or credit card, is now “extinct.” Mission accomplished. (Now, if we could just achieve that a little bit quicker with an improved design…).» —“The flip side of customer experience” by Mark Hurst Good Experience May 1, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
When an international team of scientists traveled to a research station in Antarctica for six months, the language they all shared was English. After six months together, their accents changed ever so slightly — a miniature version of how language...
What’s the difference between ethics and morality? Between a proverb and an adage? Eli Burnstein’s Dictionary of Fine Distinctions: Nuances, Niceties and Subtle Shades of Meaning (Bookshop|Amazon) helps readers distinguish between such...