First, the cardinality of its terbri is currently six. Typically, non-joke gismu are at-most-5-ary, or are arbitrary-ary. Thus, this word is nonstandard.
Second, "delta" in English and technical usage has many usages. The most common or generally useful such - in my current, subjective estimation - is either this one or the following:
"x_1 (value) is the difference or change in a function between values x_2 and x_3 in that order (x_2 - x_3)."
We could possibly specify what the function is or the other conditions under which the change took place. But the primary point here is that the relevantly changing independent variable in question is not explicitly specified and the changing values (labelled "x_2" and "x_3" in this alternative definition) are instances of the function and not of the variable, unlike the definition supplied in the actual entry.
In other words, one would say, for example, "my profit today from shoe sales" and "my profit yesterday from shoe sales" in the context of the alternative definition. In the actual entry'a definition, one would specify (in the same example) that the function is my profot from shoe sale, the variable is time, and one is measuring the change in the function as the variable changes to today from yesterday.
This alternative definition allows for a bit more flexibility than that of the actual entry. For example, disparate quantities of the same rough type or dimensions, which could be hard to group/categorize/specify in one function name, can be easily compared. For example, one could measure the difference between employee wages and the value which they add to their employer via sales revenue. These are specific types of monetary value that the employee 'provides' (one being negative and one being positive for each the employer and the employee (but it changes depending on the subject)); however, the employee may provide other monetary value to the employer (or the world at large), so it is hard to name exactly what types of values are being considered and mutually compared here (id est: what the name of the function is).
On the other hand, the current definition, while perhaps slightly more clunky, has its own uses and is more explicit and clear when the uses of each definition option overlap. Additionally, the alternative definition is perhaps too close to other words in Lojban which mean "change" or "difference" (in various senses) and, so, can just be rolled up into those.
I see no way by which to reconcile these differences, even if we add sumti slots to the alternative definition as considered. Fundamentally, one mentions f(t_i)'s and one simply mentions f and t_i's.
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