I was recently at a conference with a presentation about "incivility in nursing." I do realize this happens all the time - between faculty and students. However, some of their examples I saw as iffy, at best. For example, have you ever started an email without using a greeting? If so, you are being incivil. For example, you are at work and you email someone saying, "Would you like to have lunch today?" Or "Do you know where I can find that white paper?" Or whatever?

I know I do it all the time. Am I being incivil?

Different people have differing ideas on that subject. Email is certainly a much more informal medium than letters. However, some people think it can go too far. I am sometimes taken aback by an email starting "Hi Alan!" or similar from someone I've never met who is trying to sell me something I probably don't need or is responding to a customer complaint from me. Perhaps that's just me being an old fart, though.

I have on occasion started an email without a greeting, usually on purpose when I'm trying (possibly too subtly) to indicate that I'm not interested/involved in the matter and want to end the correspondence. I've seen emails without greetings, often sent from phones, and often forwarded. In these circumstances it's understandable as it might be difficult to type a long screed. It does however sometimes take me aback.

I try to avoid emailing a person near to me at work with mundane "chit-chat" - it's better I feel to wander over to their desk and talk face to face. However, if the other person is some distance away I'll often use IM to chat.

As I mentioned, different people have different ideas, so YMMV.

I think most incivility is caused by "uncivil" people. Mostly those are people who point at those who use "incivil" and chortle derisively.

I often omit a salutation when it's part of an ongoing conversation. If it's someone trying to sell me something, well, that's what the "delete" function is for.

Ngram for uncivility vs incivility; AHD entry for incivility.

quote:

Ngram for uncivility vs incivility; AHD entry for incivility.

I don't think there is any confusion re: uncivility/incivility. It's with uncivil/incivil.

Sorry, Proof. You are correct.

incivil is apparently obsolete.

quote:

He was a Prince.
Gui. A most inciuill one. The wrongs he did mee Were nothing Prince-like.

Shakespeare, Cymbeline

As you know, I can no longer access the OED. Does it talk about the difference between incivil and uncivil, if there is any? It almost seems to me that they should be two words because the in and un aren't exactly similar.

Incivil does appear rarely but incivility seems to be much more common. I don't think there's much, if any, difference between the two forms, incivil or uncivil.

If there is a difference, I'd say that incivil might refer to someone who didn't follow a particular person's idea of polite interaction, for whatever reason, whereas uncivil might refer to someone who was deliberately rude. That's only a suggestion from me, though; others might see different nuances.

the difference between incivil and uncivil

The only real difference between the prefixes un- and in- is their origins. The former is from Old English, and the latter is from Latin. (Although both go back to the same root in PIE.) That being said, un- tends to be used with words of English origin and in- with words of Latin origin. Civil is from Latin. There are exceptions, and uncivil is one of them. There's another one in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." We would say today, inalienable, but Jefferson et al. went with unalienable.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,

That's really interesting, z. I wondered why sometimes it's in, while other times it's in. Quinion validates your point, z.

arnie, if I were to differentiate incivil from uncivil, that's exactly how I'd do it as well. However, as people here (and Quinion) have been saying, it's uncivil and incivility.