Corporate-speak, with all it’s imaginary verbs (“to action”) and definite article-free phrases (“end of day”, “top of mind”) has so eroded my faith in diction used around the workplace that I actually doubted the existence of a noun my boss inserted into a memorandum yesterday. However, the wisdom of my elders prevailed, and I feel sheepish to learn (at 26, after an M.A. in English) that “throughput” really *is* a word…
throughput (n.): 1. the amount of material put through a process, esp. in manufacturing or computing. 2. processing or handling capacity
You learn something every day.
But it totally shouldn’t be.
I lost my faith in… everything… the day I got an out-of-office reply mail that said “I will action your issue upon my returning.”
*death, mayhem*
Throughput really *is* a word?
I realized the corporate-speak is getting to me today when I actually tried to change a heading which read `Key Learning’ to `Key Learnings’ – because after all – learning can never be singular, eh?
I’m still rocked by the realization that throughput is an actual word – I would have fought to the…well…discomfort on that one!
C
Come to think of it, I’m not fully convinced that “throughput” *should* be a word. I found it listed in the Oxford Canadian Dictionary, but let it be known that this same dictionary contained a listing for “value added”, which seems sketchy to me. Maybe it was written by corporate sympathizers, or was funded by dirty corporate money that stipulated certain dubious phrases be legitimized by their inclusion in the dictionary.
Word laundering. I love it.
Throughput really is a word and furthermore is used often in the computing field.
You can also find it on the ever handy http://www.dictionary.com.
Just my $0.02.