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Subject:Re: Performant - is it a word From:Ben Kovitz <apteryx -at- CHISP -dot- NET> Date:Tue, 8 Jun 1999 10:35:01 -0600
Deborah Garcia-Tobin wrote:
>I haven't been able to find "performant" in any dictionary but I just
>thought I'd see if anyone else is familiar with this word. Our development
>team uses the term frequently and I guess I've heard it so often I find it
>hard to believe its not a word. =20
>
>anyone else use it?
I haven't come across it before. I did a quick search on the web, and (in
English) all I found were a couple of somewhat illiterate-sounding usages
where the person meant "high-performance" (as an adjective).
But can you tell us something more about the speech community where people
are using this word? (Of course it's a word. The real question is whether
it's an ignorant or pretentious word.) When your development team uses the
word, what do they mean by it? Can you tell us a couple example sentences
that use the word?
Also, why are they using it--to communicate a specialized concept for which
they have no good substitutes, or to make a plain concept seem more
sophisticated or precise than it really is? If the former, then it's
jargon that you might need to teach to anyone who gets involved with that
subject matter and that speech community. If the latter, then treat it as
you would any other form of dishonesty.
