Piling on

Add comment June 29th, 2009

Beware of the temptation to make things sound more impressive or mysterious by tacking on useless adjectives.

Recently, for example, I encountered the phrase “linear feet” — and more than once.

A foot, by definition, is a unit of length, a linear measure. If other dimensions are involved, we use square foot or cubic foot.

There are also “foot-candles” to measure illumination and “foot-pounds” and “foot-tons” to measure energy or work.

But when figuring length, a foot is just a foot, and a sigh is just a sigh, as time goes by.