[thelist] OT (verbage)

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Thu Aug 24 21:19:19 CDT 2000


reply below the tip...

<tip type="dithering">

3 ways to get a web-safe dither to mimic a non-web-safe color:

1. Use Fireworks' 'Web-Dither Fill' to find the two web-safe colors that make up that color, and 
let it make the fill for you.

2. Use ImageReady 2.0's 'Filter' > 'Other' > 'DitherBox'.

3. Don't have Fireworks or ImageReady?  Try http://www.colormix.com/.

The last two give you options beyond just two colors, and allow for some more complex 
patterns.  I can't speak to Fireworks' capability on that since I don't have it.

</tip>

> From: Steve Maxey
> 
> Just saying "Websters" doesn't tell us anything. 
> There are several 
> different dictionaries put out under the name 
> "Websters" from different 
> publishing houses and different lexicographers.

Webster's Universal College Dictionary, New York, Random House, 1997.
(can you tell i forgot how to write a bibliography?)

> Besides which, a dictionary doesn't say anything 
> how a word "should" be 
> used. It merely records how it IS being used in 
> the language during the 
> period leading up to the dictionary's 
> publication. All your dictionary 
> tells us is that "impact" has been used as a 
> synonym for "affect" with 
> enough frequency that lexicographers felt this 
> use should be recorded.
> 
> It's still a weasel word, and poor usage.

umm... i'm just showing you what i saw... you can determine whether or not the definition is 
valid based on how you think it should be -- i know the feeling, i still think "ain't" shouldn't have 
made it into some dictionaries (mine doesn't have it)... i argue similar points about my pet peeve 
words, so i guess we all choose to write some words off...

however, i thought you might find this interesting:

http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=impact

Usage Note: Each generation of critics seems to select one particular usage to stand as the 
emblem of what they view as linguistic crassness. Thirty years ago it was the use of contact 
as a verb, but opposition to that form has more or less disappeared, and attention now 
focuses on the verbal use of impact meaning “have an effect, affect.” Eighty-four percent of 
the Usage Panel disapproves of the construction to impact on, as in the phrase social 
pathologies, common to the inner city, that impact heavily on such a community; and fully 95 
percent disapproves of the use of impact as a transitive verb in the sentence Companies have 
used disposable techniques that have a potential for impacting our health. But even these 
figures do not reflect the degree of distaste with which critics view the usage: in their 
comments some Panelists labeled the usage as “bureaucratic,” “pretentious,” “vile,” and “a 
vulgarism.” · It may be that the particular pretentiousness associated with the verbal use of 
impact is caused by its derivation from an already questionable metaphoric use of the noun 
impact, as in phrases such as the political impact of the decision or the impact of the program 
on the community, in which no more is usually meant than might have been expressed by 
effects or consequences. But though impact may have begun life a generation ago as an 
inflated substitute for “affect significantly,” it has by now become so common in corporate and 
institutional contexts that younger speakers appear to regard it as wholly standard and 
straightforward usage. Within a few years, accordingly, the usage is likely to be no more 
objectionable than contact is now, since it will no longer betray any particular pretentiousness 
on the part of those who use it. See Usage Note at contact.

Word History: The often criticized use of impact, as in the passage “social pathologies, 
common to the inner city, that impact heavily on such a community,” illustrates how one part of 
speech can have an impact on another part of speech spelled the same way. The usage also 
reflects the role played by science in the formation of new senses of words. The noun impact 
comes from the past participle impctus of the Latin verb impingere, which means “to bring into 
violent contact,” “to drive persons or other creatures onto or against,” and “to fix, fasten onto.” 
Our noun, first recorded in 1781, derived its sense from the “contact” sense of impingere. First 
recorded in a scientific context having to do with the collision of bodies, it was much used in 
scientific contexts and later, in the 19th century, took on a figurative sense, “the effect of one 
thing upon another.” The verb impact, on the other hand, also coming from Latin impctus, is 
found much earlier than the noun, that is, it is first recorded in 1601, deriving its sense from the 
“driving” and “fixing” senses of impingere and meaning “to press closely into something, pack 
in.” This old sense is still with us, but the later noun had an influence on the verb, giving us 
senses such as “to strike forcefully” and “to have an effect.”

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition
Copyright © 1996, 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.






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