new words

Lexicon entry for the day: cyify. This is one of my pet peeves. During class today, both the prof and the students were cyifying every conceivable noun. Grr.

cyify (v) [see-if-I] To unnecessarily add the -cy ending to create a noun, usually in an effort to seem more academic.

Common examples of cyification are “Normalcy” and “Relevancy.”

“Normalcy” originated in a mathematical sense before it was popularized by President Harding as a description of his for his foreign policy. While it has recently gained acceptance in American English, it is still “widely scorned” in British usage, according to the OED.

(1929) G. N. CLARK in S.P.E. Tract XXXIII. 417: “If…‘normalcy’ is ever to become an accepted word it will presumably be because the late President Harding did not know any better.”

There is no return to normalcy, unless you’re embracing Harding’s foreign policy. You can return to normal, or even to normality. “Normalness” is even an accepted noun. So please… no more “normalcy.”

“Relevancy” is a mostly archaic British legal term for the quality of being relevant. (Again, thank you OED.)

So… if you’re not a 17th century barrister, just say “relevance.” Thank you.

:::EXTRA_NERDY ALERT::::

From the OED on the proper application of -cy:

Partly used to form new words, partly to refashion earlier words in -ance, expressing quality. If the L. diligentia, elegantia, temperantia, prudentia, were now for the first time adopted as Eng., they would be made diligency, elegancy, temperancy, prudency; they owe their existing forms in -nce, to the fact that they were adopted from Fr., long before -ncy came into use. But many words, once like these, have been refashioned, and now appear with -ncy; e.g. constancy, infancy, piquancy, vacancy; the modern tendency being to confine -nce to action, and to express quality or state by -ncy; cf. compliance, pliancy, annoyance, buoyancy.

So cyification is a real process. I just coin the terms, people.