Thursday, September 22, 2005

MAKING UP WORDS AGAIN?

The president of the United States, in a speech yesterday:

If you want to grow something, you shouldn't tax it. If you want to encourage small business growth, we ought to incent it to grow in that part of the world.

"Incent"?

Maybe it's in the OED, but it's not in my unabridged. Remember, this was a speech, not off-the-cuff remarks. Is he telling the speechwriters, "I don't care if it's a word -- I like it, I'm putting it in, and you can find another job if you've got a problem with it"?

*****

UPDATE: In comments, PartisanJ (and others) point out that "incent" has been deemed a real word by lexicographers.

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