...''incent is not a verb - heck, it's not even a word.''
Hyperbole, of course, but still, one wonders: Do these scolds really think they get to decide which words live and die?http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/04/03/dissent_on_incent/
I'm not a big fan of incent, and i'm not in the habit of using it. But all language is in constant flux, as I think many former discussions on this board have reached to agree. So, if it's in usage...well, then, it's a word.
what are you trying to start, mav?
> trying to start
moi? eta, how could you suggest such a thing...
hehheh, I just thought it was a pretty useful dissection of the knots people get themselves tied in when they invest language with the disproportionate baggage of their social attitudes.
and fwiw, I'm no fan of 'incent' either. But I shan't get my knickers in a twist if I hear it said in a context that makes sense - I would probably mark the person as Not One of Us, but!
I do wonder sometimes why these little language change matters get some people so riled up.
Just another whack at that pesky wedge!
I consider that the new uses that rile people up are more in the line of peeves. It peeves me when I hear ads about "growing your business," Ah, well.
> why these little language change matters get some people so riled up
Well, ifn I know my fine Fong I'll bet this is a largely rhetorical bait, but I'll bite anyway. My guess is that one of the central roles of language is to define a sense of identity and community (see development of slangs and argots), and given this context some people get antsy when they feel somehow threatened by 'their' language being taken away from them by changing custom.
If there was one period in history that I would love to visit stealthily for linguistic interest, it would be the period of the Great Vowel Shift in England - it all happened in such a short period of years that such radical changes in the very phonology of the whole language must have been stunningly discombobulating to a lot of people, don't you think? Only of course they would have all hated the word 'discombobulating'... :]
Well, incent incenses me, but not for any of the high-falutin' reasons maverick suggests. The prescriptivist in me is only awakened by words that offend me aesthetically, and incent does a VERY good job of that. It is just plain ugh-er-lee!
> words that offend me aesthetically
yep, I feel the same. otoh, you then have to scratch a bit deeper to figure out why one usage will feel like fingernails on the blackboard when a similar term may not, nah?
one usage will feel like fingernails on the blackboard when a similar term may not
Exactly. Incent bad, descent ?? incense ??
When I hear someone say that some word offends esthetically and that word is only marginally different to many other words that do not offend I wonder what the real issue is.
And if my question did have that sort of rhetorical bait quality to it, that doesn't mean I'm not interested in folk's opinions in the matter. I think you may be on to something with this "sense of identity and community" thing . On the Great Vowel Shift, were there no prescrips at the time who recorded their dismay at the way them young rapscallions were destroying the language we love?
Then, if you don't like incent there's always incentivize.
In reply to:
When I hear someone say that some word offends esthetically and that word is only marginally different to many other words that do not offend I wonder what the real issue is.
When I read pompously intellectual over-analysis of the purely subjective, I wonder what the real issue is. I don't like the word incent because I think it's ugly. It's that simple. Sometimes a cigar really is nothing more than a presidential sex-toy, and sometimes people actually say what they mean without subtexts. If it satisfies your apparent craving for "meaning" behind something as utterly subjective and irrational as personal taste, I'm happy to add that I don't like enceinte, either. Wanna give me a treatise on the psychosexual signifance of that coincidence?
boys, go to your rooms.
there's obviously been some incenting going on here...
pompously intellectual over-analysis
I was perfectly happy not knowing that you don't like enceinte, but then you were asked about your opinion on incent, weren't you? Still, the subtext to my bewilderment at folk's diatribes against certain words was curiosity. I'm willing to acknowledge that some people don't like some words. My issue-laden angst is concerned with the vigor with which they prosecute that dislike. Not saying that you exhibit that particular vigor, but.
Then, if you don't like incent there's always incentivize.
“This bill will help incentivize everybody to solve that part of the problem” (Richard A. Gephardt).
I remember a black-and-white science-fiction movie from my youth where the space aliens had this sound generator which produced a noise to which they were impervious but which drove humans to their knees with pain -- perhaps an extrapolation of the "silent" dog whistles which were popular in the fifties. "Incentivize" does that for me.
Picture captured from the mind's eye: Space alien lands in saucer. Steps out of ship. Sees human (me) who may interfere with plan to conquer the world. Turns on intercom in alien space suit and sez "Incentivize. Incentivize. Incentivize" Father Steve (as a young boy) drops to his knees, hands over both ears, writhing in pain. Aliens proceed to conquer earth.
"Incentivize" does that for me.
I agree, Pops. Why use the ugly and awkward "incentivize" when we have the much more simple and mellifluous "incent."
My initial reaction was to hang out here with eta in the waiting room and watch you guys go at it, but of course I had to get in my 2c worth, which would be to point out that there's a long-standing and perfectly acceptable verb in Portuguese: incentivar. FWIW and all that.
eta, can you sing harmony in parallel fourths? Maybe we can incentivate them.
>My initial reaction was to hang out here with eta in the waiting room and watch you guys go at it,
Sorry, ASp. My ire is like your CinC's sentience - ephemeral in the extreme. Fong and I have quietly kneed each other in the groins off-board, and all is now well.
The verb incentivar is not commonly used in Português but rather the form "dar incentivo a" is more common ... I think ... although my Portuguese study is now forty years in the rear view mirror ... so I could be wrong ... possibly.
In reply to:
The verb incentivar is not commonly used in Português but rather the form "dar incentivo a" is more common ... I think ... although my Portuguese study is now forty years in the rear view mirror ... so I could be wrong ... possibly.
And what's Portuguese for chutzpah? Whatever it is, you got it in spades, boyo, advising the ASp on Portuguese! 
Dear Max ~
I am not taking the lovely and charming and fluent AnnaStrophic on, with my suggestion. She said that incentivar is a perfectly legitimate Portuguese verb and I agree with her. I was just suggesting that the form with which I am more familiar is the one I offered. You think I'm gonna get killed for this? Not me. She is too fine and refined a lady.
With warmest regards,
O Boyo
In reply to:
You think I'm gonna get killed for this? Not me. She is too fine and refined a lady.
No argument there. My comment was out of envious admiration. Your post filled my head with images of parents' mothers, eggs, and the oral extraction of material therefrom, and left me in awe of your courage.
I must admit I had to take a deep breath before using operationalisation in a translation the other day. Not only does this monstrosity exist in English, but it has been adapted into Indonesian as operasionalisasi. I cannot for the life of me see that it fills a long-felt need in either language.
Bingley
Today's Dilbert comic strip has Dogbert the consultant saying:
Incentivize the resources to grow their bandwidth to your end-state vision. Don't open the kimono until you ping the change agent for a brain dump and drill down to your core competencies.
And if you have a penny in your pocket are you incent? Or maybe that's your incent? Because if you didn't have that penny you'd be outcent. And if you were outcent you'd be sent out because you had no money See?
>no money See?
Wow! I had heard that the Vatican was a bit strapped for cash, but I didn't know it was actually bankrupt.