
As a public service announcement to the high-tech and public
relations
communities, I’d like to remind people that the word
performant
is
not an adjective (and hardly a noun). Here’s what
dictionary.com
says:
Main Entry: performant Part of Speech: noun Definition: a performer Etymology: based on informant, etc.
Here's an example of correct usage:
In Gigli, brain-melting dialog was delivered by the miserable performant Ben Affleck.
Here's another:
The Gecko layout engine in Mozilla-based browsers is a superior performant to the previous engines.
Please do not use the word as an adjective. The following usage is as wrong as an eighteen dollar bill:
My 401k portfolio is sufficiently performant to afford me early retirement.
Former NSC head, Alexander Haig would often talk in tortured locutions, broken analogies and spoonerisms. Don't be like Alexander Haig. Find the right word for the right job.
Of course, you could always eschew the word entirely. It seems to be a
neologism. At best, performant
is a synonym for
performer
that conveys no additional information and at worst,
it’s a word that trips up the reader’s eye. No, performant
is
bad, bad ju-ju.