Monday, May 23, 2005

Words I hate

Guesstimate, and all its derivatives.

Pronunciation: 'ges-t&-m&t
Function: noun
Etymology: blend of guess and estimate
: an estimate usually made without adequate information

Isn't "an estimate made without adequate information" simply a guess?

From the OED: 1936 N.Y. Times 22 Dec., ‘Guesstimates’ is the word frequently used by the statisticians and population experts. 1943 N.Y. Times 19 July 4/6 Many Americans..think the Axis..will be defeated in less than two years. Intangibles..might make this popular ‘guestimate’ close to correct. 1948 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. LII. 614/2 The former is a firm figure which arises in fact. The latter is an arbitrary ‘guesstimate’. 1957 R. WATSON-WATT Three Steps to Victory liii. 316 This mixture of estimates and guestimates comes out better than we deserve, for the Opana clock was very unlikely to agree with whatever clocks and watches were consulted in the aircraft and in Pearl Harbor. 1967 New Scientist 24 Aug. 373/2 Faced with engineering problems of this magnitude, £20 million is likely to prove as elusive a ‘guesstimate’ as the original figure for Concord. 1970 Daily Tel. 1 Oct. 19 (Advt.), £1000 tax free clear profit... This is proved performance{em}not an optimistic guesstimate.

Hence {sm}guesstimate (-e{shti}t) v. trans. and intr., guessti{sm}mation, {sm}guesstimator.

1937 D. C. T. BENNETT Compl. Air Navigator v. 152 ‘Guess-timation’ is an art in navigation which should not generally be encouraged. 1942 BERREY & VAN DEN BARK Amer. Thes. Slang §179.5 Guesstimate, blend of ‘guess’ and ‘estimate’. 1943 in Amer. Speech (1944) XIX. 149/2 At no time in the past has so much depended upon the correct guesstimation of the tactical requirements of the future. 1948 Elks Mag. Oct. 11 One conservative guesstimator predicts 375,000 [television] sets in the country by January 1. 1950 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. LIV. 175/1 50,000 lb...he had arrived at by a bit of ‘guesstimating’. 1969 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 31 Jan. 32/3 The experts can ‘guesstimate’ how much gas is there [sc. under the North Sea], but there is no sure way of telling.

Naturally the first usage of it would be American.

Monday, May 09, 2005

The evils of email

I applied for a scholarship from my employer to help with my Masters degree. I have been anxiously awaiting their decision, thinking that I had a pretty good chance at getting it. I found out today that because a part of the application was missing, I wasn't even considered.

I am sure this was my fault and I just forgot to put all parts of the application in the envelope--although I swear that I did--and I swear that I checked to make sure everything was there several times. Still, something was missing.

You would think that someone could have let me know if something was missing before the application was turned over to the committee, but apparently this was hoping for too much.

When I found out about their decision, I questioned it myself, then forwarded the responded email to my boss, with an attached comment blowing of some steam at those involved in the process. With the best of intentions my boss also questions the decision, but he included my rant in his letter to the powers-that-be.

Things just aren't working out too well. At least I have calmed down enough where I am not shaking with fury anymore....and that's a good thing.