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Subject:"Increment" as a verb -Reply From:Bill Sullivan <bsullivan -at- SMTPLINK -dot- DELTECPOWER -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 21 Dec 1995 16:54:02 -0800
Faith Weber checked the Business Dictionary of Computing for our
subject word. I grabbed the Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary,
Second Edition, from off my shelf. Like the BDC, the MPCD makes no
part-of-speech statement, but from the language used it is clear the
writers are thinking that increment and Cousin Decrement are verbs.
To which I would apply my standard rule: If your audience is
technical, they will probably not become ill if you use the I and D
words as verbs. But for those simple folk who don't have ink stains
on their shirts from having tried to stick their pens into their
pockets without retracting the points, you better say what you mean
in words they can find in their favorite family lexicon.
