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As an aside, because I'm genuinely curious, can anyone explain the modern English trend of adding "age" suffix to some words? E.g. Wastage, Usage. The title of

As an aside, because I'm genuinely curious, can anyone explain the modern English trend of adding "age" suffix to some words? E.g. Wastage, Usage. The title of this post would read just as well as "Power Waste on an Idle Laptop". I also see "Usage" quite a lot on GitHub Readme pages, where I think "Use" would suffice. Many words seem to be shortened for common use. E.g. Photograph to photo. Why extend the length of other words?

castis 11y ago
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-age https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-age has some information on the subject. Seems the convention was created to turn nouns into verbs?
- phillc73 11y ago
  Thanks. Of the six potential uses, I think this one is most relevant: "Forming nouns indicating a process, action or result. E.g. blockage, slippage, shrinkage" Yet in this case the extension to "wastage" still feels somehow redundant. For example, I wouldn't say "Household wastage in modern society".
  - sp332 11y ago
    I would use "waste" to refer to the physical result, a bunch of trash or whatever. "Wastage" to me is the act, the production of waste.
brucedawson 11y ago
The meaning are subtly different. I think I used it correctly, but I could well be wrong. http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/gowerse/abc/waste.htm http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/gowerse/abc/w...
- phillc73 11y ago
  Genuinely wasn't meant to be a pointed criticism. I was curious to learn more about the use, which I just found different to what I'm used to. I guess in this case I would read "wastage" as the reduction of available power over time. That is, the power was wasting away. Rather than the "waste" of power (frivolous use) by too many CPU cycles. Anyway, English, wonderful language.....
B1FF_PSUVM 11y ago
> I also see "Usage" quite a lot on GitHub Readme pages, where I think "Use" would suffice. Traditional Unix 'man(1)' pages are against you. (And those were by the famously concise /usr, /bin and 'creat()' guys, though that last one was later regretted in a moment of weakness ;-)
jjsalamon 11y ago
You might like this app which highlights noise :) http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ http://www.hemingwayapp.com/

castis 11y ago

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-age https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-age has some information on the subject. Seems the convention was created to turn nouns into verbs?

phillc73 11y ago
Thanks. Of the six potential uses, I think this one is most relevant: "Forming nouns indicating a process, action or result. E.g. blockage, slippage, shrinkage" Yet in this case the extension to "wastage" still feels somehow redundant. For example, I wouldn't say "Household wastage in modern society".
- sp332 11y ago
  I would use "waste" to refer to the physical result, a bunch of trash or whatever. "Wastage" to me is the act, the production of waste.

brucedawson 11y ago

The meaning are subtly different. I think I used it correctly, but I could well be wrong. http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/gowerse/abc/waste.htm http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/gowerse/abc/w...

phillc73 11y ago
Genuinely wasn't meant to be a pointed criticism. I was curious to learn more about the use, which I just found different to what I'm used to. I guess in this case I would read "wastage" as the reduction of available power over time. That is, the power was wasting away. Rather than the "waste" of power (frivolous use) by too many CPU cycles. Anyway, English, wonderful language.....

B1FF_PSUVM 11y ago

> I also see "Usage" quite a lot on GitHub Readme pages, where I think "Use" would suffice. Traditional Unix 'man(1)' pages are against you. (And those were by the famously concise /usr, /bin and 'creat()' guys, though that last one was later regretted in a moment of weakness ;-)

jjsalamon 11y ago

You might like this app which highlights noise :) http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ http://www.hemingwayapp.com/