Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!nike!ucbcad!ucbvax!decwrl!nonode.dec.com!cherson From: cherson@nonode.dec.com (David Cherson, WOO/D89 - 236-2229) Newsgroups: soc.misc Subject: Down with engineerlish! Message-ID: <5528@decwrl.DEC.COM> Date: Thu, 25-Sep-86 08:35:41 EDT Article-I.D.: decwrl.5528 Posted: Thu Sep 25 08:35:41 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 29-Sep-86 01:36:49 EDT Sender: daemon@decwrl.DEC.COM Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Lines: 19 >I was under the impression that "functionality" was a legal English word, until >I was challenged to find it in a dictionary. I could not. (Is there anyone who >has a dictionary which *does* define it?) What could I use instead (features? >functionalism???) in phrases like "a description of a system's functionality", >"this product has more functionality"? You're right, there is no such word in the English language as "functionality". But what's wrong with using the correct term - function? This industry has taken the English language and twisted it for it's own purposes. If you think that functionality is weird, then listen to a new one I heard the other day, "productization". Apparently this is being used to describe the process of a product going the developing stages to market. I don't know, I expect people who possess a college degree(even in engineering:-) to understand English. David Cherson