The state Chamber is promoting a confab on health care reform with the following announcement:
The NEW Health Care Bill:
How It Impacts You and Your BusinessRegister Now!
April 20, Columbia April 22, Greenville
April 28, CharlestonWho Should Attend?
Small business owners
Human resources and/or benefits managers
CEOs and presidents
All top-level executives
Employee benefits brokers and consultantsOverview
Health care reform is upon us and already impacting you, your business and your bottom line! On Tuesday, March 23, President Barack Obama signed into law a landmark health care reform bill that will impact every American. The law brings $528 billion in total cuts to Medicare, creates $569 billion in new taxes and tax increases and will cost $2 trillion over 10 years. The bill will not be fully implemented until 2014, but tax increases will begin immediately. Other changes begin as early as July 2010. This one-day symposium will explain every angle of the legislation….
No, sorry, but health care reform is not “impacting” me. Never has, never will. In fact, I have never once been “impacted” by anything in my life.
You know why?
Because “impact” is a noun, and not a freakin’ verb, that’s why!
I’m going to go sit in the corner and calm down now, if I can…
and just reading what they think the impacts are makes me convinced that they are going to be “fair and balanced” in their presentation.
“Impacted wisdom tooth.” That’s an adjective made from a verb form, no?
Sets my teeth on edge too. That, plus the big printed sign I saw once at an Exxon station encouraging me to “Put Litter in It’s Place.”
And you won’t be “impacted” because nothing of interest happens for four years (conveniently beyond the next Presidential election). By then, people will have forgotten what they were supposed to get in Obama’s “Mission Accomplished” moment and will be wondering why their taxes are higher and the drug companies are still making big profits. They’ll forget that Obama was bought and paid for by Big Pharma and the unions.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
IMPACT – can be a noun or verb
VERB:
transitive verb
1 a : to fix firmly by or as if by packing or wedging b : to press together
2 a : to have a direct effect or impact on : impinge on b : to strike forcefully; also : to cause to strike forcefully.
intransitive verb
1 : to have an impact —often used with on
2 : to impinge or make contact especially forcefully
NOUN:
1 a : an impinging or striking especially of one body against another b : a forceful contact or onset; also : the impetus communicated in or as if in such a contact
2 : the force of impression of one thing on another : a significant or major effect
Query: Was the word used incorrectly? Or are you using it to express your anger and frustration?
@Bart–
Brad is being a purist. To him, and perhaps me, Merriam-Webster is too swayed by the notion that the English language is a living thing.
I tend to agree with Professor Steven Pinker, who says that good English is that which sounds good to an educated speaker. For example, “To boldly go” is perfectly fine usage. The bugaboo about splitting infinitives was manufactured by Latin-loving amateur grammarians 100 years ago.
To me, “impact” as it is used here sounds unduly of jargon.
Indeed.
Bart, I didn’t even bother to look up what the dictionary said, because I knew it would reflect what has become the norm. Now if you could find a 50-year-old dictionary I’d be curious to see what it said, but if it said it would be OK to use “impact” as a verb I would still object.
It grates. And it grates because of the way it is used, and by whom, and in what circumstances. It is used by people who are deliberately trying to sound like extremely official, serious people who wouldn’t get caught dead speaking normally and plainly. It is used by people who think it makes them sound smart, when it doesn’t. It makes them sound like the kind of bureaucrats who turned “bureaucrat” into a pejorative word.
Webster’s New World and others have the same definition. The common usage of the word today started with politicians around 1935 when they used it as “jargon” during political speeches and campaigns.
Nothing wrong with being a purist. I agree with your comment about what has become the norm. Then, we must ask the question. What is the norm for society in general?
If I had to evaluate “normal” based on how our society has been transformed over the past 4 decades, I would have to say we all need therapy if we compare today to the halcyon days of my youth.
Doug, I have listened to and read comments about the stock market rising and drug stock is one of the winners. Imagine that! Obama extracted a multi-million pledge from the drug companies to support the health care bill with advertising dollars.
If the drugs we consume in America were actually made in America and provided employment to thousands and thousands of people here, I could understand protection to some degree or another. However, the bulk of drugs sold in America is manufactured in Puerto Rico – 50% +/-, Ireland, and some in India. Probably 90% overall. Massive research and manufacturing complexes criss-cross PR. Merck/Schering-Plough, Baxter, Astra-Zenica, Abbott, etc., etc., etc., and etc. Long list. Just thought it might be an interesting tidbit to share.
`When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, `it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
`The question is,’ said Alice, `whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
`The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, `which is to be master — that’s all.’
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. `They’ve a temper, some of them — particularly verbs: they’re the proudest — adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs — however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That’s what I say!’
I don’t know how Burl feels about it, but I think if you’re a journalist who loves the language, you’re more likely to be irritated by “impact” as a verb. All those years of listening to politicians, business spokespeople, bureaucrats, educators, all thinking that such stiff-sounding jargon makes them sound more intelligent or authoritative.
It’s worse when you’ve spent 15 years of your career in editorial. I suspect that “impact” appears as a verb even more often in op-eds and letters to the editor, in which laypeople who are insecure about their writing ability clothe themselves in such atrocious constructions. People who might not SAY “impact” when they mean “affect” will write it.
That’s the thing about it. “Affect” is so clear, so plain (even though it does appear, ironically, in “affectation”), and expresses the thought so well. Why on Earth resort to anything else?…
Is a dictionary published in 1987 old enough?
From the American Heritage Dictionary, based on the new second colledge edition, new Dell edition, July 1987, Copyright 1983 by Houghton Mifflin Company:
impact (n) …
imapct (v): 1. To pack firmly together. 2. To strick forcefully. 3. (Informal) To have an effect or impact (on).
(Informal) is in italics.
I’m didn’t copy the noun definitions since that form of impact is not part of the discussion.
PS: Man, the pages in this dictionary are yellowing!
To me, when someone says they are “impacted,” it makes me think they are constipated.
Nope. Not old enough. When it doesn’t list “impact” as a verb, THEN it will be old enough…
Yes, Herb, you’re right. Of course, that’s a different word. Kathryn referred to it above, in relation to a wisdom tooth. It means to be wedged or packed in tightly…
“Impact” is a stupid word. There are better ones out there.
@ Bart, re: drugs
Maybe as a requirement for accepting federal money for research or the benefit of US Patent protection, we could require that the drugs be manufactured here….
Re: Drugs
1. I thought Puerto Rico was part of the USA.
2. Aren’t drugs manufactured overseas because it’s cheaper to do so? At a time when we’re trying to make health care more affordable, why would we want to make drugs more expensive? Think about how those who can’t afford drugs now would be impacted by such a decision.
Ok, I don’t really care. I just wanted to write “impacted”.
@David,
Puerto is an unincorporated territory of the US. Puerto Ricans are citizens but cannot vote while living in PR.
@Kathryn,
Don’t know how the law works regarding manufacturing in the US vs a territory.
Don’t have a problem with manufacturing in Puerto Rico, but if they want our $ and our legal protection, Ireland (much as I love it) needs to be out. I cannot believe you couldn’t come awfully close to Irish costs here if you tried–we aren’t talking Indonesia, after all.