Avoid Airlinese Terms

Description

This rule helps prevent the use of "airlinese" - jargon commonly associated with airline industry communications that can be unclear or overly formal to general audiences. Using clear, straightforward language instead of industry-specific terminology helps make your content more accessible and understandable to all readers. Airlinese terms often come across as pretentious or unnecessarily complex when simpler alternatives exist.

Examples

This rule flags the following terms:

  • "enplane" (and variations: enplaned, enplaning, enplanement) → Use "board" instead
  • "deplane" (and variations: deplaned, deplaning, deplanement) → Use "exit" or "leave" instead
  • "taking off momentarily" → Use specific time references like "taking off shortly" or "taking off in a few minutes"

Each instance of these terms will trigger an error-level alert, suggesting that these terms should be strongly avoided in your writing.

Rule Source

This rule comes from: https://github.com/mesosphere/dcos-docs-site

Rule Definition

extends: existence
message: "'%s' is airlinese."
ignorecase: true
level: error
tokens:
  - enplan(?:e|ed|ing|ement)
  - deplan(?:e|ed|ing|ement)
  - taking off momentarily