impact

impact (ĭmʹpăkt) noun

impacted, impacting, impacts (ĭm-păktʹ)

[From Latin impāctus past participle of impingere, to push against. See impinge.]

impacʹtion noun

Synonyms: impact, repercussion. The central meaning shared by these nouns is "a strong effect exerted by one person or thing on another": the far-reaching impact of an oil embargo; a strike that had dire repercussions. See also synonyms at collision.

Usage Note: Each generation of critics seems to select one particular usage to stand as the emblem of what they view as linguistic crassness. Thirty years ago it was the use of contact as a verb, but opposition to that form has more or less disappeared, and attention now focuses on the verbal use of impact meaning "have an effect, affect." Eighty-four percent of the Usage Panel disapproves of the construction to impact on, as in the phrase social pathologies, common to the inner city, that impact heavily on such a community; and fully 95 percent disapproves of the use of impact as a transitive verb in the sentence Companies have used disposable techniques that have a potential for impacting our health. But even these figures do not reflect the degree of distaste with which critics view the usage: in their comments some Panelists labeled the usage as "bureaucratic,""pretentious,""vile," and "a vulgarism." It may be that the particular pretentiousness associated with the verbal use of impact is caused by its derivation from an already questionable metaphoric use of the noun impact, as in phrases such as the political impact of the decision or the impact of the program on the community, in which no more is usually meant than might have been expressed by effects or consequences. But though impact may have begun life a generation ago as an inflated substitute for "affect significantly," it has by now become so common in corporate and institutional contexts that younger speakers appear to regard it as wholly standard and straightforward usage. Within a few years, accordingly, the usage is likely to be no more objectionable than contact is now, since it will no longer betray any particular pretentiousness on the part of those who use it.

Word History: The often criticized use of impact, as in the passage "social pathologies, common to the inner city, that impact heavily on such a community," illustrates how one part of speech can have an impact on another part of speech spelled the same way. The usage also reflects the role played by science in the formation of new senses of words. The noun impact comes from the past participle impāctus of the Latin verb impingere, which means "to bring into violent contact,""to drive persons or other creatures onto or against," and "to fix, fasten onto." Our noun, first recorded in 1781, derived its sense from the "contact" sense of impingere. First recorded in a scientific context having to do with the collision of bodies, it was much used in scientific contexts and later, in the 19th century, took on a figurative sense, "the effect of one thing upon another." The verb impact, on the other hand, also coming from Latin impāctus, is found much earlier than the noun, that is, it is first recorded in 1601, deriving its sense from the "driving" and "fixing" senses of impingere and meaning "to press closely into something, pack in." This old sense is still with us, but the later noun had an influence on the verb, giving us senses such as "to strike forcefully" and "to have an effect."