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stranger
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Does anyone know the birth of the usage of the term "proactive/pro-active"? And, perhaps, whyohwhyohwhy we can't send it on back where it came from?
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There was a time in the late seventies and early eighties when law enforcement used this term. The traditional posture of the police -- to wait until a crime occurs and is reported -- was deemed "reactive" and not good enough. Going looking for crime and nipping it in the bud was considered "proactive" police work and was thought to be better.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Welcome aBoard, ...hmm--I first wanted to call you ff, but that's reserved for a buddy of mine (where are you, k?); "finny" seems kind of insulting somehow; although your screen name makes me think of Cynthia, I don't want to make an assumption; dang, guess I'll just have to say finfia!  Anyway: I recall hearing proactive in trainings [cross-thread e] back in the '70's, so it's been around at least that long.
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stranger
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Oops, I think I sent a message to Father Steve rather than posting. Sorry. Thanks for the info, and thanks to Jackie for the welcome. Finfia is already a silly nickname, please enjoy. And ff means fortissimo (very loud, or very strong) to all of us musicians. That's an honorable abbreviation!
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I've always considered it a retronym, purporting to be the converse of "retroactive." Prescriptivist that I am, I won't use it myself and I wince whenever I hear it. It's a bit like the devising of "analog watch" that only came into being after the emergence of digital timepieces, though by now that one has become an acceptable distinction. At least it's appropriate to differentiate analog from digital in this context. Is "pro-" really the inverse of "retro-", or have they mixed languages here? Should we agitate for "ante-" instead? 
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Quote:
I've always considered it a retronym, purporting to be the converse of "retroactive." Prescriptivist that I am, I won't use it myself and I wince whenever I hear it. It's a bit like the devising of "analog watch" that only came into being after the emergence of digital timepieces, though by now that one has become an acceptable distinction.
At least it's appropriate to differentiate analog from digital in this context. Is "pro-" really the inverse of "retro-", or have they mixed languages here? Should we agitate for "ante-" instead?
It's the converse of reactive, not retroactive. Father Steve's explanation pretty much covers it, though why he would think that preventing a crime would be merely "thought to be better" than solving one escapes me, unless he's worried he'd be out of a job as a judge if it became too effective. I can see that it could get out of hand if the police used draconian tactics to prevent the crimes, arresting them for being suspected of thinking about committing a crime, but anything can get out of hand if not done properly.
The closest I have seen to a legitimate argument against the use of "proactive" was that the term "anticipatory" would be an acceptable alternative, but I don't think that the two terms are close enough to being synonymous for that argument to be cogent. "Proactive" is more of a generic attitude towards a generic problem and "anticipatory" more a specific action directed towards a particular instance of a specific type of problem.
Being proactive would be dealing with and solving problems that tend to lead people into a life of crime; anticipating would be identifying people who are likely to commit crimes and capturing them just before they commit the particular crime.
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I've zero problem with the sound or associations of this word, and it surely fulfills a useful function not otherwise clearly and compactly expressible.
In the crime prevention context, if police officers cowered in their stations until a crime was reported to them we might describe them as only a reactive force; patrolling the streets makes them obviously proactive.
edit: oops, sorry FS, only just noticed what a close mantle this was - forgive my goldfish brain, please!
Last edited by maverick; 11/23/05 09:56 AM.
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Um--is there an etymological reason why cowered and coward are pronounced the same?
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T’would seem not – AH gives the Middle English couren, of Scandinavian origin as the origin for cower, whereas coward comes from the Latin for tail: NOUN: One who shows ignoble fear in the face of danger or pain.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Old French couard, from coue, tail, from Latin cauda.
OTHER FORMS: cow ard —ADJECTIVE
WORD HISTORY: A coward is one who “turns tail.” The word comes from Old French couart, coart, “coward,” and is related to Italian codardo, “coward.” Couart is formed from coe, a northern French dialectal variant of cue, “tail” (from Latin c da), to which the derogatory suffix –ard was added. This suffix appears in bastard, laggard, and sluggard, to name a few. A coward may also be one with his tail between his legs. In heraldry a lion couard, “cowardly lion,” was depicted with his tail between his legs. So a coward may be one with his tail hidden between his legs or one who turns tail and runs like a rabbit, with his tail showing.
American HurtageThat is, unless there's an unrevealed deep level of connection between the Scandinavian root and Latin, which seems a bit unlikely.
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Thank you, Sweet Thing.  Hurtage --wow--I didn't know you could do Tennesseean!
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