Originally Posted By: bilkirk
The latest noun to suffer such misuse is "transition." Whatever happened to "move?"


I don't object to 'verbing' nouns per se, but this seems to be a case of unnecessary obfuscation. It's like the amusing propensity of those police who can't seem to speak to the mass media without talking about "a deceased male person" when they mean "a dead man" or telling you they have "neutralized a potentially viable device" when they mean they defused a bomb.

In my opinion good English usage avoids adding more syllables just to make your speech sound more impressive. Keep it simple unless the more exotic word actually adds meaning or emphasis. Only use a big word when a smaller word won't do. If you can use 'change' or 'move' to mean the same thing, then say 'change' or 'move' in preference to 'transition.' But there may be contexts where 'transition' conveys a sense that those words or other synonyms don't.

Last edited by The Pook; 04/22/08 12:16 AM.