Monday, January 16, 2012

Words of the Weasel Part 25

Impact, used as a verb. On NPR this morning "The tornado impacted Joplin Missouri". Proper English is "The tornado hit (or struck) Joplin Missouri".
Impact is a noun (the impact of a bullet) or a condition of teeth (the dentist extracted four impacted wisdom teeth.)
Bureaucrats love "impacted" because it sounds so benign. "The regulations impact business" sounds so much better than "The regulations hurt business."
I dislike people who say "impacted". I figure they are attempting to conceal something unpleasant from me. The common word for people like that is "liar".

No comments: