Curious Omission In New-Style Formats

[Ian Kelly]

On Jul 14, 2016 11:37 AM, "Marko Rauhamaa" <marko at pacujo.net> wrote:
>
> Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly at gmail.com>:
> > On Thu, Jul 14, 2016 at 10:02 AM, Marko Rauhamaa <marko at pacujo.net>
wrote:
> >>    In American English, the original word for [significand] seems to
> >>    have been mantissa (Burks[1] et al.), and this usage remains
> >>    common in computing and among computer scientists. <URL:
> >>    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significand#Use_of_.22mantissa.22>
> >
> > Just because it's already common to use the wrong term doesn't mean
> > the usage should be promulgated further.
>
> Where do you get the idea that the common usage is "wrong?" What do you
> use as a standard?

Is it "wrong" to consider some usages "wrong"? By what standard?

I'm not interested in arguing over philosophy, so I won't.