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Subject:Re: Spelling inquiry: Cacheable? Cachable? From:Gail Hodgson <gail -at- HPATO -dot- AUS -dot- HP -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 1 May 1995 11:11:10 EST
WARNING: Rant follows ...
As technical communicators, we have a responsibility to our readers to give
them text that is as clean and correct as possible. Poorly written manuals
*do* teach people bad writing habits. (Just look at the number of people who
now write "It this then that" because they've seen it in manuals that were
written by programmers!)
One of my pet peeves is new words invented by sticking an "able" or
"ability" on the end of perfectly good words. Last week, our Marketing
department wanted to use "low costability" or "cheapability" to describe
one of our new products. :-(
We need to draw the line before feet become "sockable" and "shoeable";
socks and underwear become "drawerable" or "dresserable"; money and
credit cards become "walletable"; and the ornaments on the top of your
TV become "TVontopable".
... rant ends.
Gail Hodgson
gail -at- hpato -dot- aus -dot- hp -dot- com
P.S. I don't think cacheable is a word. (I don't think cachable is either.)
