The laws and charters that order the house — sovereignty, standards, consent, enforcement. Rule as care, not control.
Whether a thing can actually be used by the bodies and minds that meet it. Accessibility is a property of the design, never of the user.
Able to be reached and used by the bodies and minds that meet it. Accessibility is a property of the design, never of the user.
To bring into a common line or purpose. Alignment is agreement made structural.
The state of standing in a common line or purpose. Alignment is agreement made visible in arrangement.
An agreement between parties to act together while remaining separate. An alliance is not a merger.
Text describing an image for those who cannot see it. The image's meaning made available by another route.
The set of marks that tell assistive technology what a thing is and does. Meaning made available to those the visual form does not reach.
To give a thing to a holder, or a task to a doer. Assignment creates responsibility where there was none.
The giving of a thing to a holder or a task to a doer. Assignment creates responsibility where there was none.
The naming of whose work a thing is. Attribution is the minimum owed to anyone whose hand is in something.
An independent check of whether a thing is as claimed. An audit's value comes entirely from not being done by the maker.
Self-rule — deciding by one's own law rather than another's. Autonomy is not isolation; it is where the deciding sits.
A flat surface things are set out on to be seen together. Also the body that governs. Both are places where matters are laid before others.
The line where one thing stops and another begins. Not a wall — a statement about where authority ends.
A form performed to mark that something real has changed. Ceremony does not cause the change; it witnesses it.
A founding document stating what a thing is and by what right. A charter binds those who wrote it as much as those who come after.
Instructions given to be carried out. A command differs from a request by not leaving the answer open.
A promise that binds the one who made it. A commitment costs exactly when keeping it becomes inconvenient.
The meeting of a standard imposed from outside. Compliance is not agreement; it is conformity.
Held within limits. Constraint narrows what is possible and is often what makes a design decidable.
A limit that shapes what is possible. Constraints are not only obstacles — they are what makes a design decidable.
The power to determine how something behaves, and the means of exercising it. Control implies someone holds it, and that it can be handed over.
A practice agreed rather than required. A convention is not a rule, and treating it as one is a common error.
The bringing of separate actors into working agreement. Coordination costs attention and prevents far more expensive collisions.
The maker's standing to decide how their work is copied and used. A right held by default and often signed away.
A body called together to deliberate. From the shout that summons - a council is not a group that exists, but a group that was CALLED.
A promise binding both sides, held by their own word rather than by force. A covenant survives because the parties keep it, not because it is enforced.
A choice made, closing the others. A decision is only real once something becomes impossible.
A statement made openly and on the record. A declaration binds the one declaring, which is what separates it from a remark.
The handing of authority to another to act in one's place. Delegation transfers the doing and never the answering for it.
To settle what a thing is or will be. Determination ends a range of possibility.
The worth a being has by existing. Dignity is not earned, cannot be forfeited, and is not granted by anyone — it is the ground floor.
To make a thing take effect. Enactment turns a decision into a condition of the world.
The making of a rule actually hold. Enforcement is where a stated principle either has teeth or is revealed not to.
The raising of a matter to a level with more authority. Escalation admits that the present level cannot settle it.
Taking value from another without fair return or real consent. Exploitation is the thing this house's license names first and forbids outright.
A closure that may be opened, in a boundary meant to be crossed sometimes. A gate is a wall that expects passage.
A check placed before an action to stop it going wrong. A guard costs nothing when nothing is wrong.
A named service listing credentials known to have appeared in breaches. A named tool rather than a concept.
Arranged in levels where each answers to the one above. Hierarchy makes order cheap and exceptions expensive.
An arrangement in levels where each answers to the one above. Hierarchy makes order cheap and makes exceptions expensive.
Statements of what to do. Instructions differ from descriptions in that following them is the point.
Wholeness — being undivided and unaltered. In a person and in a record it means the same thing: nothing has been quietly changed.
Of the international standards body, and the date format it set. A named standard rather than a concept.
The reasons that make a thing defensible. Also the even alignment of text to both edges.
To give reasons that make a thing defensible. Also to align text evenly to both edges.
To hold responsibility for how a thing runs. Management is coordination, not ownership.
The work of keeping a thing running well over time. Management is maintenance applied to people and process.
Nomos (Greek νόμος: law, custom, that which is apportioned and held to — the law as a THING a house can point at). The policy document turned into columns: sections, subsections, the tables inside them and the date the document itself states, as DATA with no opinion about how any of it looks. DISTINCT FROM RENDERING, and the distinction is the whole reason it exists apart: a renderer takes structure and puts it on a screen, and this takes prose somebody wrote and finds the structure already in it. THE DATE IS THE DOCUMENT'S OR IT IS EMPTY — never a default, because a page printing a hardcoded date for a document that does not carry one is telling the reader something the document never said; both of the house's labels are read, "Last updated:" and "Effective date:". A TABLE IS LIFTED, NOT FLATTENED: a markdown table inside a section comes back as headers and rows on that section. NESTING IS KEPT and the tree is the document's own. NOTHING THROWS AND NOTHING IS INVENTED: an empty document, a document with no headings, a heading with no body, a subheading with no parent, a table outside any section, a header-less table and a ragged table all come back as calm shapes, and what the document does not say the parse does not say either. It parses a shape, not a language — lists, links, emphasis and code fences ride through as raw text, and only two heading levels nest. No clock, no disk, no network, no DOM, zero imports; reading the file stays the caller's business.
An arrangement in which position carries meaning. Also a command, and a rank — all three assume something decides the sequence.
An ordering that makes things findable, and a body of people arranged for a purpose. Both are structure imposed so work can happen.
To set aside a standing rule for this case. An override should leave a trace, since it is an exception someone chose.
The standing to decide what happens to a thing. Ownership is about authority, not possession.
An intended sequence set down before acting. A plan's worth is in having thought, not in being followed.
A standing decision applied to all cases of a kind. Policy exists so the same question need not be answered twice.
A commitment held before the particular case arises. A principle costs something exactly when it is inconvenient.
To decide what comes first when not everything can. Prioritising is a statement about scarcity.
What comes first when not everything can. Priority is a statement about scarcity.
A bounded body of work with an intended end. Also to throw forward — a project is something cast ahead of where you stand.
A commitment to a future act. Also a placeholder for a result not yet arrived — both are trust extended forward in time.
Something put forward to be accepted or refused. A proposal is not a decision — it is the asking.
To put forward for acceptance or refusal. Proposing is the asking, and it is not the deciding.
The keeping of a thing from harm by something standing between. Protection implies a protector and a threat.
Standing between a thing and what would harm it. Protection is a posture held before the harm arrives, or it is only regret.
An agreed order of steps two parties both follow. A protocol lets strangers act together without trusting each other first.
What a thing is for. Purpose is assigned rather than discovered, which is why a thing can be repurposed.
Compromised — a credential known to have appeared in a breach. A named security state rather than a concept.
To make a thing necessary rather than optional. Requirement removes a choice on purpose.
A thing that must hold for the whole to be acceptable. A requirement removes a choice on purpose.
To narrow what may be done. Restriction is a choice removed, and should say by whom.
A bound placed on what may be done. Restriction is a choice removed, and it should say by whom.
How long a thing is kept before it is let go. A retention rule is an ethical decision wearing a technical name.
A form repeated on purpose so meaning can gather in it. What makes it a ritual is that the doing matters as much as the outcome.
A stated order of what comes next and roughly when. A roadmap is an intention, not a promise.
A statement of what must or must not be. A rule differs from a description in that breaking it has consequence.
Set apart and not to be treated casually. Sacredness is a decision a community keeps, not a property a thing has.
To remove what could do harm before letting a thing through. Sanitising is a judgment about danger made in advance.
The bounds within which a thing applies. Scope is what keeps a rule from reaching where it was not meant to.
The condition of being protected from harm or intrusion. Security is a state maintained, never a state achieved.
Authority over one's own ground that no outside party may revoke. Sovereignty is not independence — it is the right to decide within one's own bounds.
Short form of specification — a statement of exactly what a thing must be. A spec is a contract before it is a plan.
A statement of exactly what a thing must be. A specification is a contract before it is a plan.
Short form of screen reader — the instrument by which a page is heard rather than seen. A named abbreviation.
An agreed measure others are held to. A standard is only a standard if more than one party keeps it.
Steering, rule, governance — from the steering-oar: the hand on the thing that decides where the whole vessel goes. Old Norse, stjórn. Direction as an act, never as an office.
A plan for reaching an end across many moves. Strategy chooses which battles matter; tactics fight them.
Permitting little deviation. Strictness buys reliability and costs tolerance for the unforeseen.
How little deviation is permitted. Strictness buys reliability and costs tolerance for the unforeseen.
A thing handed over for consideration. Also the act of yielding — the same word for offering and for giving way.
The line at a doorway, and the level at which something changes. Both are places where crossing matters.
A record standing for a claim or a task. A ticket exists so nothing depends on someone remembering.
The condition of being seen through — how a thing works, visible to those it affects. Transparency is structural, not a promise.
Acting on another's word without verifying it. Trust is a decision to accept exposure, which is what makes it worth something.
A stated preference counted alongside others. A vote converts many wills into one decision, at the cost of the minority's.
A promise made binding by the one who made it rather than by any enforcer. A vow costs exactly when keeping it is hard.