This comment is made in full good faith.

I get that being clear/accurate/specific is important, but isn't this what slang/shortnames are used for?

Even in the most conservative engineering positions I've had, slang was used alot, since there are tons of things that have overly long/descriptive/technical terms which no one wants to use in everyday language/communication. The only time you would use them would be in documentation, and even then many times there is a glossary and the shortname would be used.