Te Pūkenga, the new entity created out of a merger of New Zealand's polytechnics and institutes of technology, has decided 'merger' is no longer part of its vocabulary.
A style guide issued to academics and staff - another word that shouldn't be used - has raised eyebrows with some of the changes.
Te Pūkenga is the new country-wide mega polytech - except just don't call it that.
"Ultimately, in dictating that you'll say this and not that, you'll run into issues of avoidance, you'll run into issues of panic if an academic uses the wrong term," Auckland University linguistics lecturer Dr Keith Montgomery told Newshub.
A 30-page style guide has been issued internally by the country's largest tertiary provider, with one section devoted to "Words and acronyms we don't use".
It includes 'megapolytechnic', 'megapolytech', 'merge' and also 'Treaty of Waitangi'. The guide clarified only the Te Reo title, 'Te Tiriti o Waitangi', should be used.
"I don't think it's helpful, simply because both Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Treaty of Waitangi were signed. And it's helpful to know one and read the other," Māori community leader Dame Naida Glavish said.
There is also a section on "preferred terms". Students should only be called 'ākonga' or 'learners', not students, trainees, or enrollees. And staff should be called 'our people' or 'kaimahi'. The guide explains that "in most cases, we don't use the term staff".
"I think the problem with the style guide as it stands is that it's a little too prescriptive," Te Puna Wānanga Professor Stephen May said.
Dame Naida said: "I don't object, of course, to the use of the word ākonga, but I think it would be helpful to have the word student beside it because I think anyone who uses te reo Māori should understand what they are saying."
Newshub asked some of the learners of today what they call themselves. Many people said "students", and another said, "Just a student at Whitecliffe, that's it".
In a statement, Te Pūkenga chief executive Peter Winder said the style guide was intended to be used as a reference.
"Many organisations, including tertiary organisations, provide style guides to their teams as a standard resource," Winder said.
"The intention is to promote consistency in the terms we use, given we have brought 24 different entities together."
But a guide intending to streamline style may have left everyone more confused.
