free variable

I just won a months-old argument with a colleague. (I had, in fact forgotten that the argument had happened in the first place.) The specific term at the center of the argument and the identity of the colleague aren’t important, but the concession, which took the following form, was downright awesome: “We disagreed about the meaning of term X, but I have decided you are right because Patrick Cousot defined it the same way in his talk.”

Now that’s vindication.