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I agree. That said, "performant" is not, has never been, and will never be a word. (This is not directed at you, parent poster, but I see that .. group of let

I agree. That said, "performant" is not, has never been, and will never be a word. (This is not directed at you, parent poster, but I see that .. group of letters .. crop up all the time in HN stories and comments)

IsaacSchlueter 17y ago
That said, "performant" is not, has never been, and will never be a word. Well, it's certainly Not A Duck. It's pronounceable, it has a widely accepted spelling and definition… Seems like a word to me. Time to get over it, I think.
- Semiapies 17y ago
  Mind, it might be an annoying, ugly, overlong, or otherwise undesirable word. I have a vendetta against "utilize", myself.
- anigbrowl 17y ago
  'blint' is pronounceable but doesn't actually mean anything. The same is true of my username, for that matter. 'Performant' doesn't have any etymological basis, nor does it fill any real need; such words only serve to highlight their employers' lack of vocabulary. Children make up such portmanteau words on a regular basis, but this is generally the result of ignorance rather than originality and is generally curable with the help of a dictionary and thesaurus. English has such a massive vocabulary that if you need a new word and you're not writing a fantasy/sci-fi novel, then it probably means that you weren't paying attention.
- arebop 17y ago
  Does it mean "fast" or "efficient" or something else? Both those words are shorter and more widely understood.
  - deleted 17y ago
    [deleted]
  - IsaacSchlueter 17y ago
    It means that something "performs well". The specific criteria of performance depends on context. Both "fast" and "efficient" are more specific than performant, but are related concepts. Note that "speed" and "efficiency" are also often related, but not quite the same thing. They fill a different linguistic need. Performant is pretty widely understood, in my experience.
petercooper 17y ago
I agree. Nuh-uh. This style guide says "Agree: things are agreed on, to or about, not just agreed." So, bizarrely, "I agree" or "We agree" are not valid, despite any good dictionary saying otherwise. Of course, this could be because it's a style guide and most people here seem to have missed that point ;-)

IsaacSchlueter 17y ago

That said, "performant" is not, has never been, and will never be a word. Well, it's certainly Not A Duck. It's pronounceable, it has a widely accepted spelling and definition… Seems like a word to me. Time to get over it, I think.

Semiapies 17y ago
Mind, it might be an annoying, ugly, overlong, or otherwise undesirable word. I have a vendetta against "utilize", myself.
anigbrowl 17y ago
'blint' is pronounceable but doesn't actually mean anything. The same is true of my username, for that matter. 'Performant' doesn't have any etymological basis, nor does it fill any real need; such words only serve to highlight their employers' lack of vocabulary. Children make up such portmanteau words on a regular basis, but this is generally the result of ignorance rather than originality and is generally curable with the help of a dictionary and thesaurus. English has such a massive vocabulary that if you need a new word and you're not writing a fantasy/sci-fi novel, then it probably means that you weren't paying attention.
arebop 17y ago
Does it mean "fast" or "efficient" or something else? Both those words are shorter and more widely understood.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- IsaacSchlueter 17y ago
  It means that something "performs well". The specific criteria of performance depends on context. Both "fast" and "efficient" are more specific than performant, but are related concepts. Note that "speed" and "efficiency" are also often related, but not quite the same thing. They fill a different linguistic need. Performant is pretty widely understood, in my experience.

petercooper 17y ago

I agree. Nuh-uh. This style guide says "Agree: things are agreed on, to or about, not just agreed." So, bizarrely, "I agree" or "We agree" are not valid, despite any good dictionary saying otherwise. Of course, this could be because it's a style guide and most people here seem to have missed that point ;-)