# Annoyancewise use of “accuracywise” **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 10, 2001, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475 "2001-03-10T21:52:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2001, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/1 "2001-03-10T21:52:14Z")
Every flipping Staff Report (including the [most recent one](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhotdog.html)) ends with the disclaimer > [@](#): > > **Staff Reports** are researched and written by members of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, Cecil’s online auxiliary. Although the SDSAB does its best, these articles are edited by Ed Zotti, not Cecil, so accuracywise you’d better keep your fingers crossed. Can’t something be done about that? Continued exposure to the word[sup]1[/sup] _accuracywise_ is threatening to rob me of my sanity. Is it someone’s lame effort at humor? It doesn’t come close. (_Saltwater taffywise_, now that’s humor.) [/quote] [sup]1[/sup]I use the word _word_ loosely. _Accuracywise_ is not in any of my dictionaries, and if it were, I’d throw out the offending tome. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2001, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/2 "2001-03-11T07:06:05Z")
Grammarwise, I think you have a good point. (Now tell me you didn’t see **that** coming.) ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2001, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/3 "2001-03-11T15:34:50Z")
> [@](#): > > Accuracywise is not in any of my dictionaries, and if it were, I’d throw out the offending tome. Dictionaries reflect use. At best they are historically authoritative. To me, the neologism “accuracywise” strikes an appropriate tone: clear, yet slightly mocking – Zottish even. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2001, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/4 "2001-03-11T15:48:01Z")
picmr, I do believe you’ve coined your fist adjective. This momentous event will doubtless appear in a future OED. And I was there! I saw it happen! Zottish (adj) - First mention in print: Straight Dope Message Board (11 March 2001) by picmr - brought to our attention by AW (see appendix with list of contributors). Sweet immortality is yours and mine. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2001, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/5 "2001-03-11T15:58:21Z")
Cecilophant. ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2001, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/6 "2001-03-11T18:38:29Z")
Oh, come on. The joy of English is its ability to add to and subtract from the body of words in general use. This usage will either thrive or die; nothing to be done about it. In ten years it will either be part of the language or forgotten. The English language is essentially Darwinest- those constructions, no matter how wierd, which people believe useful survive; those that are unfit die. No Academy of English, unlike French; that way lies stagnation. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2001, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/7 "2001-03-11T20:30:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by picmr \* > \*\*Cecilophant. \*\* Ah, but **Arnold** was sucking up to Ed, not Cecil. I think a more appropriate coinage would be Zottoady. 😃 I am of course assuming that your coinage refers to sycophant. But perhaps you are likening Arnold to some sort of pachyderm? ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/8 "2001-03-12T14:00:01Z")
Well, Jumbo Wrinkleried never seems to forget a column. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/9 "2001-03-12T17:21:10Z")
I think _accuracywise_ is both double-plus good and k3wl. ---
**Author:** ![LEEJAE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e5b9ba/32.png) [@LEEJAE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LEEJAE)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2001, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/10 "2001-03-16T19:49:17Z")
I’d like to add “yourguys’s” to the list. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2001, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/11 "2001-03-18T06:59:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LEEJAE \* > \*\*I’d like to add “yourguys’s” to the list. \*\* In Jamaican English, that would be “a fi oonu.” - Jill ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2001, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/12 "2001-03-19T22:09:15Z")
Jumbo Wrinkleried! That’s a good one picmr. ROTFL. Come over here a second so I can congratulate you properly. ::SMACK:: Colibri, please do not encourage the “wits” of the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![onigame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9fc29f/32.png) [@onigame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/onigame)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2001, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/13 "2001-03-20T16:50:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Arnold Winkelried \* > \*\*picmr, I do believe you’ve coined your fist adjective. This momentous event will doubtless appear in a future OED. And I was there! I saw it happen! > Zottish (adj) - First mention in print: Straight Dope Message Board (11 March 2001) by picmr - brought to our attention by AW (see appendix with list of contributors). Sweet immortality is yours and mine. \*\* Sorry to burst your bubble, but “Zottish” is already used as an adjective to describe things pertaining to Zotts, an Indian-Gypsy tribe (probably deriving from the Jats). I’m afraid the most neologistic utility you’ll get is a new meaning of the word. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/14 "2001-03-22T01:27:31Z")
And another thingness–shouldn’t the thread title, _Annoyancewise use of “accuracywise”_, in order to be even more correcter-like, be: _ **Annoyacizing** use of “accuracywise”_? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2001, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/annoyancewise-use-of-accuracywise/57475/15 "2001-03-22T02:30:50Z")
Um, what’s the problem here? The suffix -wise means something like “in the matter of” or “pertaining to”. I don’t know of any reason why it shouldn’t be affixed to the word “accuracy”, to form a word meaning “in the matter of accuracy”, which, judging from context, is exactly what the word is intended to mean.