“Performant” is not a word

http://boulter.com/blog/2004/08/19/performant-is-not-a-word/

by guan • 13 years ago

4 5 13 years ago

Headline trolled me good, I was all ready to post my screed about how it is, in fact, a perfectly cromulent word because people use it all the time and everyone else knows what they mean and English isn't a dead language defined only by what you'd find in dead-tree dictionaries.

Of course, the post basically goes on to say you should just keep using the word, so no ranting required.

hyperbovine• 13 years ago

I dislike the word simply because it's vague. If it's fast, just say so. I have yet to see an instance where this word captured some subtle shade of meaning that some other word could not.

nickfargo• 13 years ago

I have understood “performant” to suggest a soundness of design that causes something to be “fast”. In the context of algorithms, certainly the distinction is blurred, but in other, higher-level contexts, it can be meaningful.

guan• 13 years ago

Here’s a discussion on Stack Exchange:

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/38945/what-is-wro...

“Performant” is not a word

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