Timeline for Optimalization or optimization?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
14 events
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| Jun 11, 2019 at 17:54 | comment | added | J.R.♦ | @userr2684291 - No one seems to be arguing that the word doesn't exist. This answer links to two dictionaries which list it, and where the answer mentions "a non-existent word," that is clearly attributed that as one person's opinion (Bryan Garner). Rather than get into a protracted debate about the word's existence here in the comments, maybe it would be better to write a useful answer; ideally, such an answer would do more than assert that optimalize is a real word; it would provide learners with examples of when it should be used instead of optimize – since that is what the OP asked. | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 17:00 | comment | added | user3395 | @J.R. You can't compare apples and oranges. Those results don't expound on context anyway, which is why they're irrelevant in discussing the differences between the two words, and the same goes for Garner's comment quoted above. What they do show is that the word definitely exists. Only when you establish their common denominator – their meanings, words they collocate with, contexts where they're used – can you compare them. Think of optimalize as a word that's used in a specific field and means "optimize". There's plenty of such "fancy", "invented", but synonymous words. | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 14:25 | comment | added | J.R.♦ | @userr2684291 - Okay, nice catch on my typo; thanks. But still, Ngrams may plot optimalize happily, but it still barely registers a heartbeat. Anyway, I wasn't arguing that it wasn't a word, but I do think it's usually not the preferred word to use. | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 11:08 | comment | added | user3395 | Different dictionaries do have different criteria, however, but you can generally trust that if a word can be found in a dictionary, it's an established word (even if it's confined to a certain field). As concerns the word in question, it's a mistake to say it's not a word, or that it "doesn't exist" – it's been recorded and defined in reputable dictionaries – but that is not to say that everyone should use it, or that it should be used in every context. I just don't see any reason to lie to people about it. | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 10:56 | comment | added | user3395 | @J.R. Here's a third one. Once again, dictionaries (or rather the lexicographers behind them) are trustworthy on the issue of "word existence" because they apply compelling, long-standing criteria that decide whether a word ought to have its entry. Whether a word has fallen out of use is another thing. The Google Books Ngram Viewer can't find more than 40 occurences of optimailze, and hence doesn't plot it. It will happily plot optimalize. | |
| Jun 10, 2019 at 17:45 | history | edited | J.R.♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
removed part about comments being removed
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| Jun 10, 2019 at 17:44 | comment | added | J.R.♦ | @userr2684291 - It's more than spell-checkers flagging it as a non-word. OneLook lists more than twenty dictionaries with entries for optimize, but only two with entries for optimalize. Ngrams can't find the word in published works. | |
| Jul 11, 2017 at 14:23 | history | edited | Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 67 characters in body; deleted 1 character in body
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| Jul 11, 2017 at 13:41 | comment | added | user3395 | Google detecting it as a misspelling is also not a valid reason. I've downvoted your answer, by the way. (: You could've called it an evil word then, which would be equally (in)correct. I don't know what you mean by widely accepted either – I'm gonna go with reputable dictionaries, not wild assumptions. Moreover, I never said optimalization has to come from nominalizing optimalize. | |
| Jul 11, 2017 at 13:10 | comment | added | Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini | @userr2684291 Perhaps 'non-existent' is too strong a word, but that's how I want it to be. I don't want the OP to use it at all since it's not widely accepted. If "optimalize" is not even a word, how can you attach the suffix to it to form "optimalization"? | |
| Jul 11, 2017 at 13:04 | comment | added | user3395 | I don't understand how you can claim it's a non-existent word when it evidently exists. Besides, words have to satisfy certain criteria to enter dictionaries and, further, maybe the verb isn't that commonly used, but the noun is (which the book doesn't explicitly talk about). | |
| Jul 11, 2017 at 12:39 | history | edited | Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 11, 2017 at 12:31 | history | edited | Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jul 11, 2017 at 12:25 | history | answered | Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini | CC BY-SA 3.0 |