Well actually it is, but it’s not what you think, even though it should be.
At one point I thought I invented the word ‘performant’ as a term to mean “performs acceptably” or “it’s really fast!!” kinda like ‘compliant’. But then I noticed other people I didn’t know were using it too.
The only problem is that it’s not a word. One dictionary defines it as “a performer” like in a play. That’s clearly not what we mean, but it makes sense. There’s even a company with Performant in their name, though they don’t seem to have anything to do with high performance.
So what’s a renegade linguist to do? Just keep on using performant. Eventually the dictionaries will catch on. Hey, if Doh can make it, surely performant should have a place.
In related news, Wired has finally decided to stop capitalizing ‘internet’. Did you hear that, AP?
Curiosity: first recorded use of this word seems to be in 1847 (source: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=performant&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cperformant%3B%2Cc0). It’s certanly part of the IT vernacular, so I hope it’s just a matter of time before it’s made official.
There are many specialized words in many different sciences that are not recognized English words. There are also many words/spellings that are US or AU English that are not UK English. Let’s just use the word for what it means in computer science, which is a solution that performs its process or task in an optimized manner.
Jargon is common enough and fair to use with the correct audience. My complaints worth this term are:
We already have the established terms “high performance”, “efficient” and “functional”, all which are more descriptive and understood.
The most common use I see of “performant” is in the marketing of development scripts and tools, rather than as a meaningful descriptive term. It had a high Weasle Quotient as a result.
Jayme,
“high performance” is not a noun (cannot be used after: “It is -“), so let’s leave that one out. “functional” (you guessed it) is functional; whereas “performant” is non-functional – completely opposite technical meanings. “efficient” is an exact measure whereby “performant” activities/tasks/etc. can be compared. Just as “effective” is an exact measure whereby “functional” activities/tasks/etc. can be compared. – I don’t think we can live without any of these words!
– Elwyn
You mean “is not an adjective”.
Note that “performant” exists in French too and also means “efficient”, whether related to IT or not.
Unsure which stems from which.
Anyway, I heard the French word used in its non-IT sense, by non-IT people.
A word is a word if a significant number of people understand it. Dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive; they tell us what people mean when they use a word, but they are often slow to catch on to some usages. Bear in mind that English started out as little more than a patois, looked down upon by the ruling class who spoke French and wrote Latin, and they probably wouldn’t have regarded any English words as “proper” words.