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Discussion Groups / British English / April 2004The efficacy of efficaciousness
After writing, "You can judge the efficacy of that technique for yourself," I wondered whether I should have used "efficaciousness." AFAICT, the words mean precisely the same thing. The etymologies are the same. MWUCD11 says that "efficacy" has been used in English since the thirteenth century, and "efficaciousness" has been used since 1528. FWIW, I just ran a spell check using Agent. It had no problem with "efficacy," but it did with "efficaciousness." Is there any reason for preferring one word over the other? TIA.  SignatureMike Bandy > After writing, "You can judge the efficacy of that technique for > yourself," I wondered whether I should have used [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > with "efficacy," but it did with "efficaciousness." Is there any > reason for preferring one word over the other? TIA. Yes, too may people pronounce it e-FIC-acy. m. > > After writing, "You can judge the efficacy of that technique for > > yourself," I wondered whether I should have used [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > with "efficacy," but it did with "efficaciousness." Is there any > > reason for preferring one word over the other? TIA. > Yes, too may people pronounce it e-FIC-acy. The efficacy of your typing leaves something to be desired. As to the word itself: it always makes me think of snake oil; why not use an alternative? :- efficiency, adequacy, utility, .... Signaturehttp://www.dacha.freeuk.com/free/ Free Software: !Jclean - JPEG cleaner & transformer >> > with "efficacy," but it did with "efficaciousness." Is there any >> > reason for preferring one word over the other? TIA. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >word itself: it always makes me think of snake oil; why not use an >alternative? :- efficiency, adequacy, utility, .... Those words have different connotations. That's why I didn't use "efficiency" or "effectiveness." I'd have used "adequacy" if I'd have thought of it, but the meaning would've been different. SignatureMike Bandy >After writing, "You can judge the efficacy of that technique for >yourself," I wondered whether I should have used [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >with "efficacy," but it did with "efficaciousness." Is there any >reason for preferring one word over the other? TIA. "Efficaciousness" is unwieldy, so I would prefer "efficacy". SignatureJohn Hall "I am not young enough to know everything." Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) >>with "efficacy," but it did with "efficaciousness." Is there any >>reason for preferring one word over the other? TIA. >"Efficaciousness" is unwieldy, so I would prefer "efficacy". You're absolute right. I've probably never used "efficaciousness" in my life, and there's no reason to start now. SignatureMike Bandy Efficacious Grasshopper (My uncle gave me "Grasshopper" as a CB handle when he placed my first call to me. He said he wanted to think of a South Dakota animal.) |
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