In Quick Takes ( ~ Zay Smith of the Chicago Sun Times) a reader writes about the overuse of "impact," and I agree. However, this use, fortunately, I have never seen! He found the sentence in another newspaper:

"A lot of people felt that something more impactful had to happen."

Zay's response? "Your words come too late to be impactful. There is already a company out there named Impactize."

The term isn't in one-look, but google shows that it's used very frequently, even in the press.

Dammit.

Including in the UK media!

Whenever a new word is coined or an old word is used in a new way, someone hates it. Michael Quinlan says, "impactful is known from a learned journal of 1973 and is probably older still". Read what else he has to say about new coinages.

The OED Online doesn't include impactful, but it does list impactive, which it defines as "of, pertaining to, or characterized by impact; having an impact", and traces back to 1934.

Tinman

[This message was edited by tinman on Sun Feb 15th, 2004 at 21:00.]

Interesting, Tinman. I found lots of quotes, but somehow I missed that. I have a lot of respect for world wide words, but I must disagree with him this time. Just because someone puts a "ful" on a word, and it catches on, does that make it a word (here we go again!)? Quinion says that there isn't an alternative to "impactful." Wouldn't "impacting" work?

quote:

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Including in the UK media!

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Not really. The example you cite is a direct quote from the managing director of a US-owned advertising company.

quote:

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
Quinion says that there isn't an alternative to "impactful." Wouldn't "impacting" work?

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The original quote was, "A lot of people felt that something more impactful had to happen."

I don't have any idea what the article was about. This sentence might make more sense if it were viewed in context. As it is, it sounds terrible, at least to me. To substitute "impacting" for "impactful" offers no improvement. Perhaps removing "more impactful" and replacing it with "with greater impact" (or "with more impact") would be better. Even "more impactive" sounds better than "more impactful" (but not by much). Perhaps "more forceful" or "more powerful" would do.

Words have a way of growing on a person. What initially sounds terrible may come to sound pretty good in time. I can't imagine "impactful" being one of those words.

I got the Quinion quote by looking in OneLook, as I'm sure you did. This is what I found:

Sorry, no dictionaries indexed in the selected category contain the word impactful. (*)

I then scrolled down to see what the * meant and found:

(*) We did find some phrases that contain impactful:

Phrases that include impactful: an exceedance of impactful ignorals

So you were almost there, Kalleh. By the way, you were the one who introduced me to OneLook. Thank you.

Tinman

[This message was edited by tinman on Mon Feb 16th, 2004 at 21:07.]

Oh, you're welcome, Tinman. With your Internet investigative skills, that is quite a compliment!

I tried, but couldn't find the original article. The article I referenced was in the Chicago Sun Times, and they quoted the sentence from the "other Chicago newspaper" (Chicago Tribune.) The writer obviously didn't approve of the use of "impactful."

quote:

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Kalleh: Including in the UK media! arnie: Not really. The example you cite is a direct quote from the managing director of a US-owned advertising company.

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arnie, you're right about the particular Guardian cite Kalleh chose, but you can also find impactful in the Guardian as used by Brits:

• quoting the editor of the Independent (near the end): "We are continually questioning what we do and trying to do it in a more approachable and impactful way."
• quoting the BBC's director of television: "This is not duty programming, but impactful programming."
• speaking thru the Guardian's own columnist (6th paragraph).

[This message was edited by wordnerd on Mon Feb 16th, 2004 at 21:39.]

Why am I not surprised that the Grauniad uses the word?

Help Me, Somebody! Help Me!

While the British do try to be tactful,
Most do not approve of "impactful."
If The Guardian won't drop it,
Their readers will stop it.
They'll write in complaints by the sackful!

If I can I will tell without yelling
Of the Gaurdian's legendary spellign
I'm not being pikky
when I say it's quite trikcy
At times to work out what it's telling

Richard English

Good grief! Everywhere I turn tonight there is a limerick!

There once was a Limerick fellow,
Who honked with a big, fat bellow.
He wheezed when he sneezed,
And he squeezed with an ease,
That made him a big, bright Yellow.



[This message was edited by KHC on Wed Feb 18th, 2004 at 20:29.]

He smiled as he gazed at the moon
And sang a serenade tune
The glow of his smile
Could be seen for a mile
Although it was just a cartoon

Wordcrafter's poster Jheem
Is now a part of our team.
Sometimes a mystic,
Quite a linguistic,
He prefers wine to Jim Beam!
[Coming from a family of vintners and all!]

I have never been limricized before. Uh, thanks.