Better Use of Language - Vol. 2 - Prefixes and Suffixes

Perhaps only myself and Holly Root will find this annoying but there has been a recent proliferation of prefixes and suffixes, particularly in the newsmedia. Wayne sent me a newspaper article to this effect.

The biggest offender is the suffice -wise. Here is the quote that got me thinking about this issue. "Preplanning will be finalized soon, budget-wise and and policy-wise." Yikes, that is not good. I'll skip over the "pre" in "preplanning for now" (Although what does it add? And how can you do something before you plan, it seems anything you do is part of the planning process. I could understand post-planning, for when things go off the plan. All planning is in advance so is this planning to plan? I guess I won't be skipping it.)

Ok so -wise. It's everywhere, it's annoying, I think writers are stuck in a rut or think it sounds good.

I'm reminded of an old Jack Lemmon Movie, The Apartment. Here is a quote from that movie provided by Google. "That's way it crumbles... cookie-wise." Also, "As far as I'm concerned your the tops, I mean, decency-wise." Clearly the movie is a satire on the trend to use verbize nouns. (Even the suffix -ize is overused.) Isn't it strange that has come around again?

I like crystalize and theorize - but fictionalize is tripe.

I also dislike pre-warn and fore-warn. Without a suffix warn means doing something before... so both pre and fore are redundant. But if you must forewarn don't prewarn. Most of these sins are accidental.

Sometimes we purposefully use language to hide something like, pre-owned cars. Is a used car evil or something. It is the same car. Now they add on "certified pre-owned." I'm reminded of the resale shop, "It's new to you."

Well I hope Wayne isn't upset I quoted from his article, plagarism-wise.