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Nancy Allison moaned:
> When did this word go from meaning "subject to or affording ground for
an
> action or suit at law" to "something that can be acted on"?
>
> My 1981 Webster's Collegiate Dictionary provides only the first
> definition.
>
> It cracks me up when I find the term in the usual turgid official
prose in
> what is evidently intended to be the second sense. Example:
>
> "The Executive Committee will follow clearly defined process that is
> timely,
> cost-effective, and actionable."
The precise date is not known.
What is known is that it occurred when some marketing-manglement
buffoon, well into his (it's always a 'he') Peter Principle dotage,
attempted to sound more important than his diminishing station would
allow. His equally intelligent and adept successor noticed the
utterance, thought it worth stealing, and ran with it.
Soon, it was peppering memos and e-mails everywhere, and political
idiot-savants were embracing it like salvation itself.
There you have it.
Degradation happens, aided by linguistic quislings and fifth-columnists
under every rock.
Kevin
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