incent : a big SOTA

[Wilson Gray]

All this has incentivized me to plead:

"Can't we all just get along?"

-Wilson


On 1/25/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: incent : a big SOTA
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The sound, appearance, and associations of the word all obnoxicate me.  It sounds like "to incense," which means almost the opposite; it looks like "incest," which is repugnant; and it reminds me of other functionally illiterate coinages that warn me, who should be incented to pay attention, that the user of such coinages probably wants to sound smarter than heorshe is.  (A few hundred Googlits on "heorshe.")
>
>   "Provide an incentive," "offer an incentive," "present with an incentive," etc., are all simple and lucid ways of expressing any idea covered by "incent." And if those idioms contain too many syllables for one's mind to process, said mind may choose the minutely less regrettable "incentivize." At least that looks like a verb.
>
>   BTW, Google returns hits on "incentify" and "incentivate" too.  Also on "obnoxicator."
>
>   JL
>
>
>
> "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Baker, John"
> Subject: Re: incent : a big SOTA
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Are your feelings in this matter founded on a belief that there
> is a preexisting and entirely satisfactory term with this meaning, on a
> prejudice against back-formations or neologisms, or on esthetic
> considerations relating to the sound, appearance, or associations of the
> word?
>
> John Baker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 9:46 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: incent : a big SOTA
>
> How many are aware that English contains a verb "to incent," meaning "to
> provide with and incentive" ? I sure didn't, at least not until
> Governor George Pataki (R. -N.Y.) promised a few minutes ago to "incent
> consumers" to switch to ethanol.
>
> Making the situation far more dire is that my OED colleagues can prove
> that "incent" has been in print at least since 1977. After nearly
> thirty years, we should not be surprised to learn that even little
> children, somewhere, are learning to lisp it. One can only prophesize
> that these little children will soon be incented to grow the economy.
>
> Won't you join me in taking the Pledge never to use the discrete
> phonemic sequence "incent" in speech or writing as long as you live, and
> beyond if possible ? And won't you do your best to scourge and
> discomfit the misguided souls who do use it ?
>
> JL
>
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