single word requests - Is there a term for grammatical mistakes as a result of trying too hard?

Today, I learned the term hyperforeignism after writing that I was drinking a latté and then stopping to wonder why I was putting a diacritical mark on the "e".

This reminded me of other language mistakes that occur more frequently when people are actively trying to make fewer language mistakes, such as:

Every "----- and me" becomes "----- and I"

Scattering "myself" throughout one's speech

"whom" overuse

These mistakes tend to reveal "I'm talking to an authority figure" or "I'm talking to a group that I may not be qualified to be speaking to".

Is there a term for this phenomenon?

Answer

Hypercorrection

It can even influence a language: Fetus is the original Latin term, but it got "fixed" to foetus or fœtus both in how people wrote Latin, and also in languages that had a term derived from it so now foetus is sometimes found in English, Dutch and German and also fötus in German; all based on people "fixing" what wasn't broken.

In between personal hypercorrection and something introducing a new spelling that became common across four different languages, are myths like "the passive voice should be avoided", "don't start a sentence with a conjunction", "don't start a sentence with however", "don't split infinitives", "don't split any verb form", "don't end a sentence with a preposition", "don't use the genitive of an noun that represents a non-living thing", "don't use like as a conjunctive". Here not only has someone got a bizarre notion into their heads about what is correct, but the "rule" has ended up being actively taught.

Often it's combined with an incorrect understanding of its own terms, as in this notorious example: non-passive passives source

Not only is this teacher enforcing an imaginary rule, but of the 10 cases marked as "P.V.", only three are in the passive voice. Of those 3, only one seems like it could be rewritten into something that didn't weaken it (and that one still wouldn't actually improve). One actual use of the passive voice isn't marked as such.

In theory, such a "rule" could become so popular, that it became a real rule just by dominating the thinking of those who spoke the language. Many though are actually impossible to follow consistently, or just too at odds with common literate use, to ever reach that point.

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

nouns - what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter? Thanks!

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.

Notes

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