To the good people of RPPR, here is the actual meaning of "forensics":
Forensic science (often shortened to forensics) is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to the legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or to a civil action. But besides its relevance to the underlying legal system, more generally forensics encompasses the accepted scholarly or scientific methodology and norms under which the facts regarding an event, or an artifact, or some other physical item (such as a corpse, or cadaver, for example) are to the broader notion of authentication whereby an interest outside of a legal form exists in determining whether an object is in fact what it purports to be, or is alleged as being.
The word “forensic” comes from the Latin adjective “forensis” meaning of or before the forum. During the time of the Romans, a criminal charge meant presenting the case before a group of public individuals in the forum. Both the person accused of the crime and the accuser would give speeches based on their side of the story. The individual with the best argument and delivery would determine the outcome of the case. Basically, the person with the sharpest forensic skills would win. This origin is the source of the two modern usages of the word "forensic" - as a form of legal evidence and as a category of public presentation.
In modern use, the term "forensics" in place of "forensic science" can be considered incorrect as the term "forensic" is effectively a synonym for "legal" or "related to courts". However, the term is now so closely associated with the scientific field that many dictionaries include the meaning that equates the word "forensics" with "forensic science".
I'm posting it in the hope that if you didn't originally know what it
correctly meant, you now do and will from now on use the word "forensic" correctly. Just today, I have once again heard it used as a vague word meaning "medicine shit with dead bodies and stuff, y'know, like in CSI and shit" on the broad media. The smart way to go about ignorance is to
find out about it, not to draw a vague meaning by contextualizing it. I'm sure most of you listeners are really smart people and already know that, but feel free to tell me to go eat shit or to give your input on this. And if I hear "forensics" once again, I will punch holes through your skull with a jackhammer singing "The house of the Rising Sun". I love that song.
