I have recently began to see many more cases of people referring to things as “addicting” (vs “addictive”) than in the past. Looking around on the web a bit it seems both terms are acceptable. Nevertheless, “addicting” grates on my nerves.
Which of the two do you prefer?
(
Just to be clear, I’m referring to sentences like
I always assumed ‘addicting’ was just plain incorrect. Isn’t it??
Like “I have hundreds of ice-cream”
The widespread use of “addicting” irritates me to no end. Let’s not forget the morons who say “pitcher” when they mean “picture.” SNARL
I concur on both points. The only thing that irritates me more is the first wanker that’s going to come in here and explain how"languages change and if people are using it, it’s correct"
Living things change. That doesn’t mean we can start using house cats to mop the floor.
I’m with you. Things are supposed to change for the better, not because a lot of morons start making a mistake often enough that the mistake becomes the norm.
ETA: Or am I supposed to say ‘Morans’?
FYI, a Google Trends comparison of addictive vs addicting search volume
Apparently people search for “addicting” much more frequently (the top plot) but news articles write about “addictive” much more frequently (the bottom plot)
Also,
[ul]
[li]A Google search for “addicting games” returns 2,510,000 hits[/li][li]A Google search for “addictive games” returns 253,000 hits[/li][/ul]
Ughhh!
Personally, I’d use “addictive” to describe a thing; and “addicting” to describe the act of addicting someone. “The pimp had the habit of addicting his whores to heroin to get them to cooperate.”
“The pimp had the habit of getting his whores addicted to heroin to get them to cooperate.”
My question stands: Is ‘addicting’ even a word?