Comments on: Impacted

By: Henry

Henry — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:32:24 +0000

The latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style has a section entitled “Good Usage Versus Common Usage” (Section 5.202). They suggest that we avoid the use of impact as a verb, except in a physical context. They say that the use of impact as a verb to mean affect is hyperbolic, as well as being widely regarded as a solecism.

By: Jonathon

Jonathon — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:10:44 +0000

Good post, Bill. Thanks for sharing. And I have to confess that I’m jealous of the name of your blog and book—I wish I’d thought of it first.

By: Bill Brohaugh

Bill Brohaugh — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:46:19 +0000

I cheer impact as a verb, when it is used as a powerful alternative to synonyms that don’t have the same (excuse me) impact. Affect, impinge upon, strike, impact–all have their nuances.

And, if you’ll allow me a link, here’s an essay in which I stick my neck out even further by declaring that, in the right circumstances, impact is a perfect verb: http://everythingyouknowaboutenglishiswrong.com/sample-impact.html

By: Jonathon

Jonathon — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:38:15 +0000

Goofy: That’s what the OED says, but all their early quotations for the alleged verb impact look like participial adjectives to me, with one isolated example from 1791. Their earliest quotation for the noun is 1781, and regular use of the verb doesn’t appear until the early 1900s. Of course, it’s always possible that there are earlier quotations that haven’t been added.

The Ridger: I believe that in the heyday of Latin borrowing, new coinages were not always terribly systematic. People would take a Latin root and slap an English suffix on it to form a new word, bypassing the step of borrowing the root itself first and then deriving new words from it.

The figurative use of impact strikes me as somewhat inflated business speak, but I don’t really object to it. I just prefer not to use it myself. I have no problems with the existence of the verb or the participle; I just associate them much more with the meaning of “strike” or “impinge,” especially the participle.

By: The Ridger

The Ridger — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:11:40 +0000

But how can it be a participial if it wasn’t a verb first?

You might object to the new transitive meaning of “affect” but you have to accept it as a verb if you’re going to accept it as an adjective derived from a participle, don’t you?

By: goofy

goofy — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:43:27 +0000

I think “impact” as a figurative verb is recent, but AIUI, the verb “impact” meaning “to fix firmly” is attested earlier than the noun “impact”.