The Vine: July 16, 2008
Hi Sarah,
This past year I started a graduate program in social work, and I’m learning that there are certain social service-y buzzwords that get thrown around, like, a lot. Two of the most commonly heard words, among both students and professors, are competency and resiliency.
I know these are both real words, but why not just use the less cumbersome competence and resilience? Are there important differences in usage or semantics that I’m missing, or do people just like the sound of that extra syllable? Because I most certainly do not. Thank you for any help!
Unwieldy Word Wonderer
Dear Wonderer,
My instinct is to tell you that “competency” and “resiliency” indicate pretentioncy, but according to Garner, in the context of social work, “competency” is a distinction with a meaningful difference: “Competence usually bears the general sense ‘a basic or minimal ability to do something.’ … Today competency is unnecessary in all but its legal sense: ‘the ability to understand problems and make decisions; the ability to stand trial.'”
For a term like “resiliency,” which doesn’t have connotations of a legal proceeding, you can probably use Garner’s note on “complacence/complacency” as a guideline; he deems “complacency” a needless variant, and I agree.I’m not a social worker, so “resiliency” may have a contextual or field-specific meaning that makes it useful, but for everyday usage, “resilience” is preferred.
For the record, MS Word’s auto-spell-check does not flag either “competency” or “resiliency.”It does, however, underline “irregardless,” God bless it.And no I will not let that go.Ever.
Dear Sars,
I’ve apparently been making a blunder for quite some time — I’ve always used the word “evinced” thusly:
“The training of Molly’s new puppy was not going well, as evinced by the large gashes on her hands.”
When I came upon something I thought was a typo, however, I searched your archives for examples, and found that in the above situation, you would apparently use “evidenced,” reserving “evinced” for such as:
“Molly evidenced little desire to be used as a chew toy by her puppy.”
(By the way, these sentences did spring to my mind from recent personal experience. Why do you ask?)
Is this an either/or situation, or will this go down as another one of those embarrassing mental wire-crossings of mine? (How I got away with using “taunt” in the place of “taut” for so many years I’ll never know.)
Evidently wrong
Dear You Can Probably Get In Line,
That second sentence doesn’t sound like something I would write — not because I don’t have a puppy, but because I have to stop and think about whether I’m about to use “evince” correctly, which I fear I’m not, so I rephrase with something else.But I don’t know that I would use the verb “to evidence” that way.
I’m going to answer before looking it up, and see if I’m right, but I think I’d switch the verbs in your examples: “as evidenced by the large gashes on her hands” and “Molly evinced little desire.”I use “evince” to mean “reveal” or “demonstrate”; “as evidenced by” is similar, but not quite the same thing, although I have trouble explaining why.Let’s check Garner…
…who isn’t a fan of either word, it seems: “These words, which are lawyers’ favorites, are often inferior to show or express or indicate.Properly, to evidence something is to serve as proof of its truth, existence, or occurrence.Justifiable uses of this verb are typically in the PASSIVE VOICE.”Caps Garner’s.
As for “evince,” the word “properly means ‘to show, exhibit, make manifest,’ but has been objected to” as journalist-ese, and is often “misused for evoke, get, receive, or some other everyday term.”I see it used incorrectly for “elicit” from time to time, and I worry about mixing it up with “evoke” my own self.
The short form: if you don’t feel confident in your usage — as I don’t; see above — write around it with “as demonstrated by” or “showed.”
Hi Sars –
This one has been bugging me for a while….there is a national auto service/repair shop that advertises on my local radio station.For years, they have advertised “preventive maintenance.”Picture me screaming at my radio “preven-TA-tive” each time I hear it.
I went and looked up “preventive” and “preventative,” and found basically the same definition for both.So, while it still irritated the hell out of me, I figured they must know more than I did.Until yesterday.
I heard a commercial for the SAME chain, and the speaker clearly said “preven-TA-tive maintenance.”I was all…HA!But it still bugs…was I right?Did someone finally read their copy and correct them?What do you think?
TaTa
Dear Ta,
My mom and I used to scream “preven-TIVE” at various radio ads; the extra syllable in “preventative” serves no purpose.Per Garner, “The strictly correct form is preventive (as both noun and adjective), though the corrupt form with the extra internal syllable is unfortunately common[.]”He goes on to note that “preventive” is used five times more often than “preventative,” and I don’t think the majority should always rule in matters of usage, but in this case, I’m fine with it.
“Preventative” is an overcorrection.The auto-repair chain had it right the first time.
Tags: grammar
Preventative is one of my personal irritants. It’s preventative because it, what, preventates? Hate.
On resilience vs. resiliency, I get 5326 hits in PsycInfo for resilience and 1882 for resiliency. I much prefer resilience and will fight the good fight alongside you, Wonderer.
I do hear it used interchangeably, but it seems like the big names in the field (at least as it relates to child maltreatment) use resilience in their publications.
“Competency” probably comes from the buzz-phrase “core competencies”; people hear it and assume that the singular form is “a competency”.
In the business environment, “competency” is also often used to refer to a specific skill or skill set, as in “Before he can be promoted to assistant manager, he needs to gain some human resources competencies.” It’s kind of buzzword-y, but in this context, it’s not *quite* interchangeable with “competence.”
The preventive/preventative issue is coming up all over the place it seems:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/podcasts/grammar_grater/archive/2008/07/10/
which was linked to from here: http://www.jeffdeck.com/teal/blog/?p=109
“It does, however, underline “irregardless,” God bless it. And no I will not let that go. Ever.”
Me either, Sars.
In the legal field, we also get a lot of “relevancy,” which makes me all stabby. I get the sense that it may have a separate and technical meaning in the world of web design — but it doesn’t in the legal field, and it drives me nuts.
What is it about morpheme addiction at large?
My pet peeve is “orientate” vs. “orient.” I understand this is a regional variation, though.
I think “preventative” may be a commonly accepted British form, Ã la “orientate,” “acclimatise,” or “aluminium.” Any Brits out there who can verify this? I seem to remember Terry Pratchett using “preventative” as a euphemism for “condom” in the Discworld.
Re: preventative – is that like “oriented” vs. “orientated?” I hear both of them all the time and have never been able to figure out the difference.
But preventive maintenance makes me laugh because there is a repair shop down the street from my house that opened up late last year. It was “Preventive Automotive Maintenance by Bob and Steve (formally of Midas)” (and…yes, ‘formally’) I had to wonder if the people at the sign shop noticed and tried to correct or if everyone in that transaction just… didn’t know. Oy.
Orientate? Ack! That’s one of my pet peeve words, right up there with commentate. You orient yourself to get your orientation and commentators comment on a situation.
Lori- I think you’re right, although I prefer “sonkies”.
I just spent a semester in London, where the frequent use of “orientate”–by everyone!–drove me absolutely batty. Perhaps it is one of those charming, let-it-slide vernacular quirks, and I’ll normally side with British English in any given dispute, but…the number of times I had to stop myself from reflexively shouting “It’s ‘ORIENT’!” at professors and tour guides and people on the street really got to me.
Oh, and “interpretate.” Now THERE’S a gem.
I have wondered about resilience/y and competence/y for so long and contemplated writing the Vine about it. Thank you, Wonderer, for not being as lazy as I. And thank you, Sars and Garner, for reassuring me that the y is useless in all but the most technical of situations.
I’m in higher ed, and we talk about competencies all the time…. they’re defined, enumerated, and part of the goals that have to be completed via Gen Ed courses before students can graduate. It sounds normal to me to say, “Gen Ed course 101 fulfills the written communication competency.” Or IT competency, or Ethics, or whatever.
I admit, this is horridly buzzword-y of us. But, in this example, “requirement” would be a much better substitute than “competence”.
@Lori
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. I’m British (been living in the States for about a year), and we Brits use “preventative” instead of “preventive.” The other examples you gave are correct too. I guess the British forms of some words have seeped into American English.
@delta888: OH HOW I FEEL YOU. I hate “orientate”. And “disorientate”. “Utilize” also strikes me as tarted up, like “use” in too much eye makeup and a short skirt. I feel the hate flow through me just thinking about an accounting teacher who used all of these; we always passed notes in class, about our collective desire to send him bobbing for fries.
Y’all would have an aneurysm down South, then. People here not only “orientate” themselves, but they “conversate” about it.
I want to scream, “TALK!! Just say talk! You’re only gossiping anyway, no reason to get all fancy!”
My pet peeve is “orientate” vs. “orient.”
God, mine too. Off that, can the grammar gods here weigh in on “commentate”? As in, what you do when you’re a commentator or doing commentary? I insist that it’s “comment” not “commentate,” but I’ve been told I’m wrong.
my wife has heard a few doozies in the courtroom. one of them, which i believe she said was used in a court of appeals or a supreme court somewhere was “surplussage,” as in “surplus” but with a pointless suffix.
i think one of the other ones (which she said came out the mouth of a social worker) was “conflictative” in describing a relationship.
eew.
My boss (a VP at a major corporation) talks about “antidotal evidence.” Fortunately I warned a new co-worker in advance, so she didn’t spit-take in the middle of a meeting.
I think my original comment got eaten, but y’all have it covered. Rock on with your oriented, preventive selves. (Or… something.)
And a king is not coronated, he’s crowned. I so love it when it’s word night at Tomato Nation. All my peeps are here.
Did you know that in Europe, athletes jubilate when they win? HATE!
Oh, and Dierdre, you’re right. Commentators comment, as some one farther up did say.
And quarterbacks do not audiblize, they call audibles.
The one that makes me all twitchy: retail management types that use “brand” as an adjective. As in, “our store does not currently look brand”.
Actually, irregardless and orientate make me twitch as well.
Hi – on the Brits andcolonialists side here – I’m in Australia and it’s nearly always ‘preventative’ here. In fact, I think if I heard ‘preventive’ in conversation it would sound like an Americanism to me. Ditto orient/orientate, particularly when there is no prefix or suffix, the preference is for orientate.
Meanwhile, I’m too busy trying to ignore people in my office asking ‘can you facilitate that? Who has capacity to action this?’ Grr! Just ask if I can you do it or manage it! Eejits.
“As evidenced by” is almost entirely a medical thing, I think. We use it nonstop in the nursing world, and I’ve never seen it elsewhere that I can recall.
And don’t get me started on “dilate” vs “dilatate”. What is it with adding an extra “ate” onto the end of a perfectly good word?
@Joe Mama: “Competency” probably comes from the buzz-phrase “core competencies”; people hear it and assume that the singular form is “a competency”.
I think it might have happened the other way around, actually: I think somebody needed a buzzword that suggested more than baseline competence, in referring a desired set of skills or knowledge, and came up with “(core) competency.” Using “-ncy” where “-nce” will do is one of my pet peeves. (I have yet to hear “incompetency”, but maybe I’m just lucky that way.) The one that kills me is “brilliancy.” Whuh? I think that’s just idiocy.
“Utilize” also strikes me as tarted up, like “use” in too much eye makeup and a short skirt.
Hee. Reminds me of someone’s comment years ago about the then-current “inclusionary” – “that’s just ‘inclusive’ with a new hairdo.'”
Stick to your guns on “irregardless”, too. And “comment” over “commentate”, Barb and Deirdre. That can’t be an actual verb!
@isabelle – YES, holy pack of cows on a stick. “Conversate” makes my left eye twitch, and when I’ve corrected people (nicely! in a joking manner because I love my friends!) they DON’T BELIEVE ME.
And then I cry.
My take on it is founded on the Oxford American dictionary. I’ve always used “preventive” as an adjective: preventive maintenance, preventive dentistry, etc. Preventative, on the other hand, is a noun. If you feel a cold coming on, you might take vitamin C because it is a preventative.
But the usage note in the OAD does state: “Careful writers use preventive, rather than preventative.
On ‘conversate:’ I believe this has a slightly different connotation than ‘converse.’ I first heard it used as slang for another idiom, ‘shooting the breeze:’ a more idle brand of chatting. ‘Converse’ seems (to me) to connote an actual subject or specific locutorial direction at hand.
That said, it doesn’t surprise me that a pleasant slang usage is seeping into regular misusage. We must be vigilant.
I got into a bit of a drunken tiff with a guy at a fancy bar a couple of weeks ago over the definition of irony. He said about the nice liquors on the top shelf, “Isn’t it ironic that the top-shelf liquors are on the top shelf?” to which I replied, “No, it isn’t ironic; it’s literal.” I don’t correct many people, but the Yale polo shirt that he had on made me have to. A bit of embarrassingly loud argument later, he said, “I bet you’re one of those intellectual bitches who correct people when they say ‘irregardless’!”
Me? Me, Mr. Polo shirt? Yes, yes I am.
I believe the last time this discussion came up here was the time that I learned that orientate is an actual word. However, it means to turn to the east.
I’m in the South as well, and I’ve heard “combinate” instead of “combine”. And people down here don’t take correction lightly from a Yankee, so all I can do is shake my head.
“Utilize” also strikes me as tarted up, like “use” in too much eye makeup and a short skirt.
–Almost spit out my Pepsi! I always complain to my husband that everyone tries to talk using resume buzzwords. Grr.
First…OMG, my question made it onto Tomato Nation! (Preventive….)
Second…@Lori and others: I spent my first 6 years in the UK, so maybe that’s where I picked it up.
@Sars – HA! Awesome
Thanks so much you guys…
“one of them, which i believe she said was used in a court of appeals or a supreme court somewhere was “surplussage,” as in “surplus” but with a pointless suffix.”
“Surplusage” (frequently misspelled “surplussage,” even by courts) is a venerable legal term dating from the 15th century, used to refer to words in a statute or pleading that are meaningless because the same thing has been said elsewhere in the same document, or because they are utterly irrelevant to the cause of action. (If my neighbor sues me for assault and in the complaint alleges that I have painted my house an ugly color, that allegation would be surplusage.) You would never use it to describe the trade surplus (for example), but it has a specific meaning in the law that “surplus” just doesn’t convey.
The coworker in the next cube once “reached an impath” with one of the help(less) desk folks and hung up on him. I got a split second image of a lecherous old Picard getting all grabby with Troi and had to bite my tongue hard to keep from laughing at her and drawing attention to myself….
Did you know that in Europe, athletes jubilate when they win?
Argh. See, I could get behind that as a slang thing, much like the “conversate” that attica mentions. But in no way should it ever make it into a news story/headline/etc. Speaking of sports jargon, is anyone else really annoyed by the verbification of “medal”? As in, “Adam Van Koeverden medalled in the 1000m kayak”?
I must admit, I have probably used “preventative” in conversation. I blame it on the vast amounts of British books I’ve read. I’d like to think it’s stayed out of my writing, though. And I also always want to say “conervativism” instead of “conservatism;” for some reason, the latter doesn’t sound like a political bent so much as a firmly-held stance on ecology.
Thanks for backing me up on “commentate,” Barb, Bo and Sandman.
Unwieldly,
I also work in a social service type place and we use “competency” as a noun; “Student X developed a list of competencies to help him reach his goals.” That doesn’t bother me as much, but I’m still not super fond of it since other words can be used just as easily.
Also, bwahahaha @ “reached an impath”.
On the concept of words being “tarted up,” here’s a paragraph from Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal.
“[h]e read Reacher Gilt’s words on the still-damp newspaper. It was garbage, but it had been cooked by an expert. Oh, yes. You had to admire the way perfectly innocent words were mugged, ravished, stripped of all true meaning and decency and then sent to walk the gutter for Reacher Gilt, although ‘synergistically’ had probably been a whore from the start.”
Rachel: Many years ago, I saw a sign for an auto repair place which boasted service on “DOMESTIC AND FOREING” cars. I snorted with laughter and pointed it out gleefully to my friend in the passenger’s seat. She looked at it and said, “Oh wow. Everyone knows it’s I before E except after C.” Scariest part? I thought she was joking. She wasn’t.
Why must people make up words, just so they don’t have to say them in proper context? Today I was told at a meeting that rather than going over every document thoroughly, my colleagues would only be “sore-thumbing” them. GAH!!! I assume that means “only looking for errors that stick out like the proverbial sore thumb,” but I’m not entirely sure. I couldn’t bring myself to ask. I have also heard people talk about “evergreening” our policies, and “tasking” their subordinates with projects. Can you tell I work in government?Sigh.
@dimestore lipstick: Apparently that’s not a real distinction, though; see this: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/nonerrors.html#preventive.
However, if your username is from the song I think it is, I will forgive you anything!
And my respectful compliments to @LTG, who brilliantly illustrates something I’ve learned: “Legal” is a foreign language all its own, and being familiar with English AND Latin is not necessarily an asset. If I see a word being used “incorrectly” in a legal document, I start thumbing through my English/Legal-Legal/English dictionary before I correct the “error.” It’s saved me embarrassment on many an occasion!
We must be vigilant.
attica: We must vigilate!!
Glad to see some fellow Pratchett fans here! Now there’s a man who knows how to use his language.
One of my cringiest peeves: in religious circles – “church” without the article, as in “We must be church to one another.” GAHHH! Not only bad grammar, it conjures up all the silliest of the post-Vatican-II abuses.
Just my two Hail Marys’ worth…
I almost feel the need to stick up for people that were born and raised in the South. I feel as though I have a decent grasp the language, even if I am an engineer (poor spelling is our hallmark). My husband and I will look at each other and cringe while watching “Ghost Hunters” and an investigator will say something like ‘supossably.’ Those all are people hailing from nothern climes. So, there are people everywhere that have a tenuous grasp on grammar.
And I also always want to say “conervativism” instead of “conservatism”
That reminded me of something that bugs the everloving shit out of me: “Conservate.” As in, “We need to conservate our resources.” No, no, no, no, no, A MILLION POUNDS OF NO. Seriously.
@Word Wonderer: I’m doing graduate work in school psychology and, beleive me, those words come up a LOT in my classes. I don’t think they’re buzz words so much. Resilience as a concept goes back in research quite a ways. It just happens to be extremely popular right now, especially when talking about positive youth development. I have seen it used in both forms, but resilience seems to be the most common.
Let me tell you how tired you’ll be of the phrase “risk vs. resiliency”. Oy.
I love this thread! Thank you, Sarah! (You know me btw). This hit a nerve with me too. Now, I am not William Safire, so I dont keep a list of these things, and I am not checking if what I am saying is totally accurate, but here goes. I think these are the result of “backward formation” – turning nouns into verbs or vice-versa, then back into nouns or verbs, and then throw in the forces of academic jargon creation, and voila, the monster lives and spews out strange new words that sound professional.
Here are a few of my (un)favorites:
1. The word “invite” used as a noun (what is wrong with invitation?)
2. The numerous adjectives that use “ego” as a root. Recently I came across “egotistical”. Egotisticalism, anybody? How about just “egoistic”? And why the t after ego? The French just say “egoist”. Maybe we should do the same.
3. Competency is a good one too. There are also a whole slew of these professional jargon pseudo/nouveau-words that come up in the world of marketing. A friend recently threw a bunch of them at me. Too bad I dont remember what they were.
4. Using the word “reference” as a verb, instead of “refers to”. I guess that or “makes a reference to” just don’t sound pretentious enough.
OK, I have to calm down now.
Preventative is the usual British form. Preventive sounds really funny to me! It will probably turn out, like it usually does, that we used to use your form originally and then complicated it later.
Talking of annoying jargon, has anyone else been instructed to use ‘thought shower’ instead of ‘brainstorm’ for meetings? ‘Thought shower’ sounds so peculiar.
@Tim: “2. The numerous adjectives that use “ego” as a root. Recently I came across “egotistical”. Egotisticalism, anybody? How about just “egoistic”? And why the t after ego? The French just say “egoist”. Maybe we should do the same.”
It might be simpler, at that. But maybe I’m just used to seeing the word “egotistical”, so it holds no terrors for me. (Syntactically speaking, that is; witnessing it on the hoof is a different matter.) I have seen a workable, if somewhat fine, distinction between “egoism” and “egotism.” “Egoism” is motivation based on self-interest, and therefore in contrast with “altruism.” “Egotism” is an unhealthy or exaggerated sense of one’s own importance; conceit. I’m not sure what “egotistical” brings to the table that “conceited” doesn’t – except for a couple of blustery syllables, good for irate spitting.