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The Older I Get, The Less Tolerant I am of ‘Ish’
Ish is a recognized part of a word and a suffix, but using it wrong is irritating
The older I get, the less tolerant I am of ISH being used as a suffix where it doesn’t fit.
Words without ISH are more absolute and definitive.
For example, someone says:
The website has a Facebookish feel to it.
Facebookish is not a real word. But we get the feel for what the person is saying. The website has some of the same attributes and features as Facebook.
Their response could have been:
The website reminds me of Facebook.
When presented with a word that doesn’t normally have ISH in its spelling, I bite my tongue to avoid lecturing the speaker on how ISH should not be used.
ISH is defined as:
An estimate, kind of, or somewhat. Its use helps to create adjectives out of nouns.
Some words require ISH as part of their spelling.
For example, ticklish, publish, selfish, and foolish are good words. Danish, Spanish, and English require ish. Then there are skittish, flourish, and selfish, plus replenish, furnish, and squeamish.
With four-letter words, ISH is more than a suffix, such as wish, fish, or dish. The integrity of the word depends on it.
My concern is with words that do not belong with ISH at the end.
For example how many times have you asked somebody, “Are you hungry?”
And the response is, “I’m hungryish.”
Hungryish, is not a word.
And that is where my patience runs thin.
I often hear the following words: hungryish, sickish, hotish, coldish, and thirtyish. The words are ambiguous, requiring many questions to determine their meaning.
I prefer definitive answers, regardless of whether they are what I want to hear.
Referring back to the example with the response using hungryish, does that mean they can eat now or later, eat a lot or a little, have a drink now, and bar food for dinner?
