Re: I just heard another one

["Kate Hough" <krhough -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I really hated "impacting" when I first heard it too (in place of "having an
impact on"). But I heard somewhere since then (sorry for absence of source)
that this use of "impact" has long been accepted in standard written
English. My guess is that I got this from Style: The Basics of Clarity and
Grace by Joseph Williams, the main book that we read in my style class when
I was in a professional writing master's program. Merriam-Webster Online not
only considers it valid to use impact as a verb, but the dictionary numbers
the verb definition of the word lower than its noun definition (though I'm
operating under the possibly erroneous assumption that lower numbers beside
definitions mean that the definitions in question are more commonly used and
widely accepted than those preceded by higher numbers).

A lot of the definitions at dictionary.com show noun definitions of the word
before verb definitions:  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/impact --
so maybe Merriam-Webster and I are misguided.

In other news, I totally hated the verb "transition" when I first heard it
-- also included in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and citations at
dictionary.com. And please don't ever get me started on the use of the
nominative case in the direct-object or object-of-the-preposition sentence
position...much yelling and gnashing of teeth may ensue.

Thanks for the diversions today. I just started a job search, and it's
lovely to be able to "geek out," as one of my techie friends would put it,
on words and language.

~ Kate



On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Keith Hansen <KRH -at- weiland-wfg -dot- com> wrote:

> So "transaction" has become "transactioning"?!
>
> Similarly, "impact" has become "impacting."  (Example: "The new IRS
> rules are impacting our business greatly.") What is consensus on that?
> It's so commonly done, I expect it will become an accepted part of the
> language. (Perhaps it already is?!)
>
> Keith
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Subject: RE: I just heard another one
>
> I'm thinking that your thinking might have been momentarily fogged by a
> stultifying encounter with "transactioning".
> <snip>
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