Upon UPDATION

[NewToCR]

I was just a at the training where one message said 'upon updation of address' and we were puzzled whether UPDATION is a valid word.

 

[SantaMufasa]

It is certainly a word, albeit made up and not listed in any reputable dictionary. It's rather like saying:

"Updation" is invalid wordwise.

The author should have said:

Upon update of address...


or

Upon address update...

or even the use of a gerund:

Upon updating of address...

But, no, "updation" is the result poor "author-tion" or poor "quality-control-tion".

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[

http://www.dasages.com:

Providing low-cost remote Database Admin services]
Click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips if you use Oracle in Utah USA.

 

[NewToCR]

And if you knew for how much it was sold...

 

[SamBones]

Well, even thought it's not a valid word, I can see where it could have come from. There are three things you can do to a record, add, delete, and update. If addition and deletion are correct, then updation surely makes sense.

 

[SantaMufasa]

Oh, I totally understand, Sam, where the notion came from. It's just not (yet) a word we shall find in any reputable dictionary, and using it causes the reader to diminish her/his esteem for the writer.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[

http://www.dasages.com:

Providing low-cost remote Database Admin services]
Click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips if you use Oracle in Utah USA.

 

[2ffat]

I was just a at the training . . .

Maybe they stuck that "word" to keep you awake. ;-)

James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]

 

[Toshilap]

Bingo! We awoke right away!!!

 

[elanor]

My friend and I (both Technical Writers) heard "updation" used by a developer in a meeting. We couldn't stop giggling and we agreed that, while it was cute when he said it, there was no way we'd ever use it in documentation no matter how many times he begged!
Thanks!
Elanor

 

[MeGustaXL]

At a company presentation this week, the BAM stood in front of a MS PP slide that listed "Boundarylessness" as one of the company values - WTHIT??

At least he had the good sense not to read it out loud!

Chris

Varium et mutabile semper Excel

http://www.insys-ltd.co.uk

 

[CajunCenturion]

The suffixes '-ation' and '-ition' have commonly been used in English to form nouns from action verbs. As is often the case, the roots of this construction are found in Latin.

To affirm ==> affirmation
To repete ==> repetition
To civilize ==> civilization
To starve ==> starvation
To admire ==> admiration
To obsess ==> obsession
To experiment ==> experimentation

In fact, from an historical perspective, this was originally done only with verbs that ended in '-ate'. Examples include:

To create ==> creation
To ablate ==> ablation
To graduate ==> graduation
To abdicate ==> abdication
To accomodate ==> accomodation
To accumulate ==> accumulation
To annotate ==> annotation
To delapidate ==> delapidation
To communicate ==> communication
To abbreviate ==> abbreviation
To aggregate ==> aggredation
To aggravate ==> aggravation
To evaporate ==> evaporation
To disseminate ==> dissemination
To insulate ==> insulation

and there are many, many more.

Now, can anyone explain, especially for the benefit of our ESL associates, what is so wrong with the following:

To update ==> updation

Is there any grammatical, linguistic, word formation, definitional, or any other reason why updation is not, or should not be, a valid word?

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[Stella740pl]

Now, can anyone explain, especially for the benefit of our ESL associates, what is so wrong with the following:

To update ==> updation

Is there any grammatical, linguistic, word formation, definitional, or any other reason why updation is not, or should not be, a valid word?

May an ESL associate try to explain?

While in most of the examples you posted suffixes '-ation' and '-ition' have been used to form nouns (usually meaning process or phenomenon) from action verbs, "update" is a verb formed from a noun "date" ("to bring up to date") and also a noun (meaning a process) in its own right. The only thing wrong with "updation" is that it, so to say, needlessly double-creates the noun from the verb.

Nevertheless, I also suspect that somewhere down the line the word "updation" will be accepted and find its way into dictionaries. It will have a slightly different shade of meaning than the original "update". Let me predict that "updation" will come to mean the process, and "update", as a nown, would mean more of a momentarily action.

What do you say?

 

[Stella740pl]

and "update", as a nown
Sorry for that. I meant 'noun'.

 

[CajunCenturion]

I'm not sure that 'update' is formed from the noun 'date' since 'to date' is also perfectly valid verb.

==> Let me predict that "updation" will come to mean the process,
Or the act of, which is exactly the purpose of these two suffixes. That is why I'm posing this question. What's wrong with updation?

It is a good observation that update is a noun in its own right, but then again, so are experiment, graduate, and aggregate.

Please don't get me wrong, I don't like updation, nor will I ever use it, but is there a good reason to say that it's not a valid word.

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Good Luck
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
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[SantaMufasa]

Is there any...reason why "updation" is not, or should not be, a valid word?

Tradition !!!

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[

http://www.dasages.com:

Providing low-cost remote Database Admin services]
Click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips if you use Oracle in Utah USA.

 

[Stella740pl]

Well, all the words you’ve shown here are nouns in their own rights, but the meaning is different.

Aggregate – A total considered with reference to its constituent parts.
Aggregation – A process of creating such,; to gather into a mass, sum, or whole.

Graduate – One who has received an academic degree or diploma.
Graduation – A ceremony at which degrees or diplomas are conferred.

Experiment – A test of something under controlled conditions, usually as a single act (well, sometimes can mean a process).
Experimentation – A process or practice of conducting sequences of such.

Update – Information that brings something up to date; and also the act or an instance of bringing something up to date. Currently, this also includes the meaning of a process, too, I would claim.

That’s why I say that “updation” is unnecessary word, the meaning of which is currently covered by the word “update”. But grammatically, you are right, there is nothing essentially wrong with it.

At the same time, I speculate that it may well be accepted one day and become a word , in some analogy to “experiment”/“experimentation” pair, to mean a process or practice, as opposed to a single act.

Oh, and bravo, SantaMufasa!

 

[TheRambler]

>...the word "updation" will be accepted and find its way into dictionaries.
It is here already, although its usage is said to be informal.

I wonder if "updation" is similar to "prepend" (thread1256-1132072) and "canonicalize" (thread1256-1131341), in that they are all technical jargon, therefore their usage would be accepted for technical audiences, although I would rather use "update".

 

[Stella740pl]

OK!

So I was not that far from the truth.

In the same dictionary,

Update - the act or an instance of bringing something up to date.

Updation - the act or process of bringing up-to-date (even though informal).

 

[ChrisHunt]

I suspect that verbs like aggregate, graduate, etc. are ancient words that bear their -ation suffixed versions from a latin root.

"Update" is a relatively modern word, a conflation of "to bring up to date". So the etymological reason why "updation" isn't currently valid is that it's not a latin-derived word, so it doesn't get the normal latin-derived variants. If there's a need for such a word, it will no doubt evolve into perfect acceptability. It wouldn't be the first to do so - Shakespeare, for example, is credited with coining the word "assassination" (from an originally arabic root). We could probably have some fu with this (new thread!) - how about the process of downsizing being downsision?

I wouldn't use "updation" myself, but can live with it. Just so long as the more-syllables-I-use... oops, sorry, I mean the more-syllables-I-utilize-the-cleverer-I-appear brigade don't get in on the act and saddle us with "updatification" or some such.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[Toshilap]

"updatification" would be disapointementingly too muching.

 

[SantaMufasa]

Sorry, Toshilap, your grammar quotient is showing: "too" is an adverb here that is trying to modify a gerund (which should not occur). And I believe that "disapointementingly" is misspelled. Therefore, the correct wording should be:

"Updatification" would be disappointmentingly too muchified.

Am I correct or am I wrong?

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[

http://www.dasages.com:

Providing low-cost remote Database Admin services]
Click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips if you use Oracle in Utah USA.