Is the word "improval" correct?
Alvaro Urech
time in the U.S.
The other day I was checking the English of a paper for a friend
of mine and he used the word "improvement". I changed it to "improval".
We got into an argument about this and finally went to a dictionary where, to
my surprise, the word "improval" didn't appear. I was sure the correct word
was "improval" and I've always used it.
Have I always been mistaken or is this word correct, even if it's not
in the dictionary?
Any comment would be appreciated, TIA
Alvaro Urech
Lars Eighner
Broadcast on alt.usage.english
I regret to inform you that "improval" is not English, and to
the best of my knowledge, it never has been. Perhaps you
confused it with "approval" which is English.
--
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=eig...@io.com=Austin TX 78751-4617 ==Travels with Lizbeth==Bayou Boy==
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="Yes, Lizbeth is well."=======Whispered in the Dark==Elements of Arousal==
Geoff Butler
> The other day I was checking the English of a paper for a friend
> of mine and he used the word "improvement". I changed it to "improval".
> We got into an argument about this and finally went to a dictionary where, to
> my surprise, the word "improval" didn't appear. I was sure the correct word
> was "improval" and I've always used it.
> Have I always been mistaken or is this word correct, even if it's not
> in the dictionary?
I'm afraid you're mistaken, the word is indeed "improvement", and
"improval" does not exist. The OED has no reference to it, which
also means it's not just an obsolete form.
Geoff Butler
Truly Donovan
>I am not a native English speaker, although I have lived for some
>time in the U.S.
>The other day I was checking the English of a paper for a friend
>of mine and he used the word "improvement". I changed it to "improval".
>We got into an argument about this and finally went to a dictionary where, to
>my surprise, the word "improval" didn't appear. I was sure the correct word
>was "improval" and I've always used it.
>Have I always been mistaken or is this word correct, even if it's not
>in the dictionary?
I think you can safely assume that you have always been mistaken.
"Improvement" is a common, everyday garden-variety American English word, and
I've never heard of the word "improval" until today.
Truly Donovan
Bob Cunningham
>In article <4enblk$v...@polaris.inta.es> ure...@inta.es "Alvaro Urech" writes:
[...]
>> I was sure the correct word was "improval" and I've always used it.
>> Have I always been mistaken or is this word correct, even if it's not
>> in the dictionary?
>I'm afraid you're mistaken, the word is indeed "improvement", and
>"improval" does not exist. The OED has no reference to it, which
>also means it's not just an obsolete form.
It's not in the 1909 WNI either.
It may not be correct to say it doesn't exist, though. We have
the testimony of one person (AU) who says that he has used it for some
time. Who knows how many people have heard him say it and have gone
on to use it themselves?
It's a nice-sounding word. It fits in with the precedent of
"approval"^. It's a little easier to say than "improvement". It just
might be here to stay and spread. It's addition to the language would
be an improval.
I like it.
While looking in AHD3 for verbs made from nouns and ending in
"al", I learned that there are two suffixes spelled "-al" but derived
from different Latin roots. There is also a suffix "al" that is used
by chemists. Thus the lowly suffix "-al" is a triple homograph^^.
Footnotes:
^ Also "arrival", "deprival", "disapproval", "disproval",
"revival,"
"retrieval", "removal", "survival", and "upheaval".
^^ Of the various definitions of "homograph", the one I am using
is
"one of two or more words that have the same spelling, may or
may not be pronounced the same, and have different etyma". By
calling "-al" a homograph I guess I've stretched the definition a
little, to include main dictionary entries that are building blocks
of words
---
BC | "Short words are best and the old words
LA | when short are best of all."
| -- Winston Churchill
Polar
Cunningham) writes:
>
>Geoff Butler <Ge...@gbutler.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>In article <4enblk$v...@polaris.inta.es> ure...@inta.es "Alvaro Urech"
writes:
>
> [...]
>
>>> I was sure the correct word was "improval" and I've always used it.
>>> Have I always been mistaken or is this word correct, even if it's
not
>>> in the dictionary?
>
You're going to drive poor Alvaro over the edge!
Pay no attention to these guys having fun with words.
"Improvement" is correct usage.
Polar
Herschel Browne
>
> It may not be correct to say it doesn't exist, though. We have
>the testimony of one person (AU) who says that he has used it for some
>time. Who knows how many people have heard him say it and have gone
>on to use it themselves?
Please note that the guy's name is Alvaro and he's posting from
Spain. Spaniards get to make up Spanish words, but I don't think
we should give them that authority over English.
> It's addition to the language would
>be an improval.
This is the *last* newsgroup where a regular poster
should make the mistake in the foregoing.
H.
Rainer Thonnes
> I was sure the correct word was "improval" [instead of "improvement"] and
> I've always used it.
> Have I always been mistaken or is this word correct, even if it's not
> in the dictionary?
Yes, you have always been mistaken, unless the word was common in some local
dialect to which you were exposed.
It's more likely that you're confused by "approval".
Peter Hoogenboom
[...]
: The other day I was checking the English of a paper for a friend
: of mine and he used the word "improvement". I changed it to "improval".
: Have I always been mistaken or is this word correct, even if it's not
: in the dictionary?
: Any comment would be appreciated, TIA
I'm afraid you are mistaken. I've never heard the word "improval." Does
the dictionary definition of "improvement" match your sense of the
meaning of "improval"?
Peter
--
Peter Hoogenboom phoo...@wlu.edu
Department of Music, DuPont 208 hoogen...@fs.sciences.wlu.edu
Washington and Lee University phoog...@wesleyan.edu
Lexington, VA 24450 (540) 463-8697
J B Youles
>Have I always been mistaken or is this word correct, even if it's not
>in the dictionary?
It looks as though it could be the proprietary name for some drug -
I can imagine the advertisement : "Impotent ? Take IMPROVAL !".
--
John Youles
------------------------------------------------------------
"If the weather we are having is a result of the greenhouse
effect, then someone must have taken out all the glass."
------------------------------------------------------------
Linda Baty
>In article <823108...@gbutler.demon.co.uk>, Geoff Butler <Ge...@gbutler.demon.co.uk> writes:
>> In article <4enblk$v...@polaris.inta.es> ure...@inta.es "Alvaro Urech" writes:
>>
>> > of mine and he used the word "improvement". I changed it to "improval".
>> > was "improval" and I've always used it.
>> > Have I always been mistaken or is this word correct, even if it's not
>> > in the dictionary?
>>
>> "improval" does not exist. The OED has no reference to it, which
>> also means it's not just an obsolete form.
>>
>clearly there and say "That doesn't exist.".
>
> It looks to me like the word follows standard English morphological
>rules, minus silly arbitrary restrictions on what affix can go with
>what stem. The -al clearly carries the same semantic load that it
>does in "approval", and "improve" probably is of the same syntactic
>categry and shows the same alternations as "approve" (although I
>want to check that last assertion in Beth Levin's book at home
>tonight.) It's like "kidhood"; a neologism, but understood
>instantly, with no ambiguity or doubt, by any English speaker.
>
> So while it previously has not been in the canon, it looks good
>to me. How much would Shakespeare have been crippled if he had
>been restricted to using only words that he had been taught by the
>Miss Grundys back in Stratford?
>
> - billf
>
I love new words, new ways of using old words, odd words, weird words,
and on and on, but I'd have to vote "nay" on improval. We already have
improvement. I can't see that improval adds anything to the language. I
could, by your reasoning, start using the word approvement, but why would
I or anyone else? We already have approval. As a native speaker of
English, I don't think improval is all that understandable either. If I
had come across it without an explanation, I don't think I would have
instantly known what it meant. I would probably have guessed that it was
some legal term, possibly having to do with making improvements on
property or something.
L. L. Thrasher
Quotations added because my sender says my reply is shorter than the old
stuff:
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THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM IS TO CALL THINGS BY THEIR RIGHT NAMES.--Chinese
proverb
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random betwen the profusion of matter and that of the stars; it is that,
from our very prison, we should draw from our own selves images powerful
enough to deny our nothingness. --Andre Malraux
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(2) Send it in
Matthew Rabuzzi
Bill Fisher <bi...@osi.ncsl.nist.gov> writes:
: Geoff Butler <Ge...@gbutler.demon.co.uk> writes:
: > ure...@inta.es "Alvaro Urech" writes:
: > > my surprise, the word "improval" didn't appear. I was sure the
: > > correct word was "improval" and I've always used it.
: > I'm afraid you're mistaken, the word is indeed "improvement", and
: > "improval" does not exist. The OED has no reference to it, which
: > also means it's not just an obsolete form.
: It looks to me like the word follows standard English morphological
: rules, minus silly arbitrary restrictions on what affix can go with
: what stem. The -al clearly carries the same semantic load that it
: does in "approval", and "improve" probably is of the same syntactic
:
: So while it previously has not been in the canon, it looks good
: to me. How much would Shakespeare have been crippled if he had
: been restricted to using only words that he had been taught by the
: Miss Grundys back in Stratford?
Now this is an interesting point. Besides the range of human emotion
and situation captured so well in his plays, I would say Shakespeare's
major contribution is to the language, in the form of turns of phrase
and metaphors -- "one fell swoop", "a sea of troubles", etc.
I wasn't aware that he also *coined* words, or as BillF suggests,
assembled them from affixes as necessary. Is this true?
(It might be best to omit from consideration proper names. Hotspur
in _Henry IV_ is an obvious antonomastic coinage; the name Caliban,
if it indeed was made up by Shakespeare, has entered the language
as antonomasia of another kind.)
(BTW, in the interests of accuracy, I think the reference you're
reaching for is *Mrs* Grundy, a figure of tightlipped social and moral
disapproval easily enough translated into narrowmindedness in other realms.)
............................................................
You get Madder at an Insane Xylem
Matthew Rabuzzi
XXdant
(Matthew Rabuzzi) writes:
>Now this is an interesting point. Besides the range of human emotion
>and situation captured so well in his plays, I would say Shakespeare's
>major contribution is to the language, in the form of turns of phrase
>and metaphors -- "one fell swoop", "a sea of troubles", etc.
>I wasn't aware that he also *coined* words, or as BillF suggests,
>assembled them from affixes as necessary. Is this true?
There's a number of words whose first known appearance is in Shakespeare:
accomodation, apostrophe, assassination, dexterously, dislocate, frugal,
indistinguishable, misanthrope, obscene, pedant, premeditate, reliance,
and submerged are among them. (This list is from A History of the English
Language by Baugh and Cable.) Shakespeare was also fairly quick to adopt
other new words, some having a first instance only a few years before his
use.
--
Dan Tilque
the.new.church.of....@gmail.com
> I am not a native English speaker, although I have lived for some
> time in the U.S.
> of mine and he used the word "improvement". I changed it to "improval".
> We got into an argument about this and finally went to a dictionary where, to
> was "improval" and I've always used it.
> in the dictionary?
>
> ur...@inta.es
1 archaic : employ, use. 2a : to enhance in value or quality : make betterb : to increase the value of (land or property) by making it more useful for humans (as by cultivation or the erection of buildings)c : to grade and drain (a road) and apply surfacing material other than pavement.
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Peter Duncanson [BrE]
replied to a question that was asked 21 years ago, yes, *twenty one*
years ago!
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.usage.english)
Harrison Hill
a Usenet thread?
Harrison Hill
Dr. Jai Maharaj
ure...@inta.es (Alvaro Urech) posted:
>
> Is the word "improval" correct?
> I am not a native English speaker, although I have lived for some
> time in the U.S.
> The other day I was checking the English of a paper for a friend
> of mine and he used the word "improvement". I changed it to "improval".
> We got into an argument about this and finally went to a dictionary where, to
> my surprise, the word "improval" didn't appear. I was sure the correct word
> was "improval" and I've always used it.
> Have I always been mistaken or is this word correct, even if it's not
> in the dictionary?
> Any comment would be appreciated, TIA
> Alvaro Urech
>
> ur...@inta.es
this book:
Complexity and Artificial Markets - Google Books
https://books.google.com/books?id=VYilNhPKZHsC&pg=PA186&lpg=PA186&dq=improval&source=bl&ots=oD1Kq21jCO&sig=Y3JqFOrfmS1x6UqyGA9X1O-58jk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjapZboifzRAhVEE7wKHRKZA3g4KBDoAQhNMAk#v=onepage&q=improval&f=false
And you can find it here:
http://www.dnnsoftware.com/forums/threadid/406410/scope/posts/wcag-v1-validation-dnn-common-issue-accessibility-improval
And in this book:
Carbon Dioxide Capture for Storage in Deep Geologic
Formations - Results ... - Google Books
https://books.google.com/books?id=jdF7DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA77&lpg=PA77&dq=improval&source=bl&ots=WP0PqlnKdA&sig=tRuEAnR84YuD02R_VU-R-KdVeGg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiStNGFi_zRAhWJVbwKHX0KBxM4MhDoAQgcMAE#v=onepage&q=improval&f=false
Just search for it on the web.
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
http://bit.do/jaimaharaj
Peter T. Daniels
I'm not going to look at the 13 original postings to see whether this was
noted back then, but OP simply felt that "improve" should pattern like "approve."
paigele...@gmail.com
"improval" to "approval"