Number 11
Years ago I read in a book on business English that “impact” should not be used as a verb, but it’s way too late to drive that one back to where it came from. The argument was, as I remember, that its meaning of wedging into place or pushing against applied to things like impacted wisdom teeth or impacted colons, and even if you could stretch the meaning to something like “the impact of sick days on profits” and further to “sick days impact profits,” why bring up those unpleasant associations? Ever since I read that business English manual, I always think of bad teeth and colons when I hear “impact” as a verb or even as an adjective, and now perhaps you will too. It’s too late for me. In any case, “to wedge against” doesn’t mean quite the same thing as “affect” or “influence,” both perfectly good words.
Now, a television commercial is describing a car as “impactful.” Why? Another meaning of impact is, of course, “collision.” Maybe you’ve heard the anecdote about an American car that wasn’t selling well in Mexico because of its name: “Nova” can be read as “no va” in Spanish, which means “doesn’t go.” Perhaps the same person wrote both ads, someone who doesn’t know either English or Spanish (see “international” below).
Commenting on an odd adjectival construction heard on TV, Fred came up with “Americanic” as a new term for “American.” I kind of like it. Let us all strive to be good Americanics in the days of testing ahead.
A TV news reporter said that anthrax in the Florida and New York cases appears to have come from “international sources.” I believe she meant “foreign.” The anthrax could have come from international sources if it was sent by a terrorist living in a country that is not his homeland, and was produced in yet another country.
“Foreign” is seemingly a word to be avoided, as if it is somehow an insult. Schoenhoff’s Books in Harvard Square sells “foreign-language books.” Someone thought they should say “international.” Why? Yes, the books are in many different languages, but the point is they are not in English. They are foreign to the English language. If, in fact, Schoenhoff’s does not sell books in English, it is not a truly international bookstore. Is the United States such a polyglot nation that the concept of a foreign language is, well, foreign to us? Nothing human is foreign to us, including languages we can’t speak?
(I’m reminded of a girl ~ the same one who never had to read the irrelevant Shakespeare for her bachelor’s degree ~ who was pained, perhaps actually outraged, that world maps in this country put the United States in the middle, as if to say we are the center of the world. I’m sure other countries are free to place themselves in the middle of their maps, and they are free to call English a foreign language, if it is not their own.)
“International” may seem a friendlier, more inclusive concept to some people, but it doesn’t mean the same thing as “foreign.” Further, I don’t want foreign languages, countries, people, or food to disappear. I’m old fashioned enough to like the idea of the exotic, the unknown, and the different.
I had a discussion once with a co-worker from the Pojoaque Pueblo in New Mexico about the term “Native American.” Most Indians (we won’t get into that word just now) prefer to be identified by their tribe anyway, but I had to say that I am also a Native American. “Native” means born here, and it’s been more than two centuries since my people came to this continent. Scotland wouldn’t claim me now.
By the way, does anyone know why, or when, “Oriental” began to be replaced by “Asian”? I have the impression that “Oriental,” meaning “Eastern,” was too Eurocentric. Everybody’s east of somebody, after all. And how come we’re still the West, after all these centuries? We should have a turn being the East for a while.
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