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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
My question concerns the use of wise as a suffix. For example: He's a real businesswise guy. Or sports players often say 'Team-wise the game went well.'
Do you guys/gals agree this is a fair usage of the suffix, or should it be reserved for otherwise and clockwise? Is it acceptable to coin new words using -wise, if only in informal prose? Should, when someone is being quoted, a coinage be written as, for example, 'sales-wise' or 'saleswise'? What about 'street(-)wise' becoming 'street wise' (a bonafide saying, so to speak)?
right, got to go, CDB
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
On a personal note, I detest the use of "-wise" to coin new words. It has an ugly sound, and tends to be used in places where a perfectly good word or phrase already exists.
However, in informal speech, almost anything goes, I suppose. I do cringe, internally, when other people use the form, but I hope I don't let it show.
So far as "street-wise" is concerned, this is an entirely different usage, for which I can see no real objection. It has the meaning of "wise in the way that life is lived in a particular context", whereas the suffix of which I have just complained (somewhat tetchily, I fear!) has the meaning of "tending towards" or "having to do with," or possible "matters concerning." E.g., "He is a smooth operator, business-wise" means that he has a certain amount of acumen in matters concerning business. (There is, I suppose, a faint connotation that he is such a smooth operator in other aspects of life!)
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
the suffix of which I have just complained (somewhat tetchily, I fear!) has the meaning of "tending towards" or "having to do with," or possible "matters concerning."
Tetch away, good man, it is loathsome, and thoroughly deserves to be tetched!
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Joined: May 2001
Posts: 28
newbie
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newbie
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 28 |
I tend to agree. The willy-nilly agglomeration of '-wise' onto any noun is a wretched, semi-literate crutch that should be beaten out of the offender, upside-the-head-wise. On a similar note, is it 'sideways' or 'sidewise' where you live? I've heard both in various regions of the US, and am unsure if this is legitimate regional variation or simply course of least effort, word-wise.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
I'm coming in with the Commando, Max and Slovovi on this one!
Sideways.
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 609
addict
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addict
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 609 |
'sideways' or 'sidewise' where you live?
'sideways' or 'sidewards' for me in UK. I looked up 'sidewards' in POD but it isn't there, though dictionary online found it. I will ask if my colleagues use it or if it is just myself.
Rodwards
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
This use of "-wise" is almost as bad as the U.S. media's love affair with "-gate". If I hear another scandal referred to as Monicagate, or Bedpangate or whatevergate, I shall start screaming.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
In Michigan, it is "sideways." I've never heard "sidewise" in use before.
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
likewise, its always sideways--here in the big apple.and i think we use street smarts rather than street wise-- Street wise would be someone who knew whether 99 Beaver street was closer to b'way or pearl street. Someone with street smarts would be savy to the ways of the city.
I personal hate timewise.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393 |
'Street-wise' aside, which is a valid combination with the adjective forming another adjective, there are two distinct adverbial suffixes.
The first one is the good old English one meaning 'in the manner of' or 'according to': crabwise, clockwise, sidewise.
The second one is the Pentagonese meaning 'with respect to', which gets added to anything.
The first is used in a few mathematical expressions: pairwise disjoint (= taking pair by pair), componentwise addition (= taking component by component). It is also used in heraldry: palewise = oriented in the direction of a pale, i.e. vertically; bendwise = oriented like a bend, i.e. diagonally.
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