Tuesday, January 26, 2016

You need this word, part 4


We have nouns, single words, for things getting better:  improvement, advance. But I don't know a lone word--not an expression, not an idiom--for things getting worse, especially when the worsening is a result of making a so-called improvement, and I think we need one. I propose  d e p r o v e m e n t for the noun, d e p r o v e for the verb.


For example, I just reluctantly installed Windows 10 in my PC. I gave in because many of the programs I use were getting interrupted, which is to say disrupted. Then Microsot would inform me (rather snottily, I thought) that these programs were no longer compatible with whatever, and that my problems would be solved if I would only accept the Dark Side. I didn't and don't want most of the new features; I'm not fond of getting tracked, and I would gladly sacrifice ease to keep privacy. Well, Windows 10 is in, and I don't like it. I can't set up the appearance that I prefer, all sorts of things keep popping up when I'm trying to do the task I sat down to do, and MS keeps shouldering in with programs and pages that I don't want. For me, it's a solid deprovement.


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