What does broad and narrow mean in a general context suppose Broad traits are x, y, z and narrow traits are a, b, c, broad issues are f, g,h and narrow issues are k, j, h? If a trait suppose X cant be further divided and why do we call it broad?
Learn English – What do broad and narrow mean in the context
expressionsgrammargrammaticalitymeaningword-usage
Related Solutions
crossed signals simply means there was a mistake. As the paragraph says there was a mix-up in communications. As @Fraser adds - "crossed signals" means specifically a mix-up in communications, it is that specific type of mistake that the expression refers too.
"the beer is on us" means "they are paying for the beer". Better rush to Denver on Thursday ;)
If you tell someone "This one's on me" then it means you are paying for that or rather treating someone else to that.
It generally means the second one.
Cants in that sense can be pretty rich, and also act as a sort of lingual junction point in etymologies; through which words are borrowed from one language, change meaning, and then get absorbed into the general language of the area the cant is used in.
For example, we know that phoney comes from the Irish word fáinne ("ring") via English carnival cant fawny for the game of hoopla.
There are many other words were we know (or strongly suspect) that they came from a cant, but don't know any further. E.g. slum is from an American thieves' cant*, slang was found in several cants as the word for that cant itself, naff† was a term in the London LGBT and theatre cant Polari meaning "heterosexual" before it became a more general insult, and so on. Since we don't know the etymology of the word any further back than those cants, they're described as being "of cant origin".
*There's reason to suspect that slum comes from 's lom in Irish, but it's not as clear as the case of phoney so most people won't say more than "of cant origin"
†Naff became a general insult through Ronnie Barker suggesting it to the writers of the television show Porridge as a nonce word to use where the characters would more realistically use fuck, shit or other words that couldn't be used in a family-audience comedy show. Barker claimed he didn't take it from Polari, but since he couldn't recall quite how he thought of it, it seems likely he'd picked it up subconsciously from Polari; as a heterosexual comic actor he would have heard it from other actors and in it being used in the comedy show Round the Horne, but likely not have had great fluency in it himself.
Best Answer
In this context "broad" means generally applicable and with wide (lots of) applications. Examples for broad traits might be "being a good communicator", "being good with numbers", "being tolerant", "keeping situational awareness"
By contrast "narrow", here, means a very specific skill with limited applicability. Examples of narrow traits are "being an expert in the use of commas in 13th century Icelandic poetry", "being able to fix air intake valves on Ford cars made between 2003 and 2005", "being able to remember pi to 1000 digits"
[This is opinion, but you asked for the origin: The usage, i imagine, comes from the metaphor of shallow and deep learning. Imagine a pool of knowledge: shallow learning doesn't go deep into the pool but covers a broad area of the surface. Deep learning on the other hand, covers a very narrow area of the surface but goes deep into the pool.]
Edit answering you question in the comments:
If one were to believe in the type a/b personality theory one could say "There are two broad types of people: type-A people are outgoing and ambitious, and type-B people are introverted". The meaning of "Broad" here is "a rough approximation", or "a view from 1000 feet". Broad in the sense of "Broad brush strokes" made by an artist or a rough sketch.
The antonym of "Broad" in this sense is "Specific" not narrow, so I guess this would be an example you seek: It's not the divisibility that makes something broad, more that it's an approximation.