Performant: well-performing. There's nothing wrong with the word.
Originally a performant was someone who'd performed in something (similar to combatant).
Unfortunately it stuck.
On the scale of new words I dislike, it's nothing compared to how football pundits describe players as 'unplayable' when they're on form.
Mind you, I am still annoyed by people saying "addicting" when they actually mean "addictive", or "concerning" when they mean "a cause for concern".
So I'm really not a good judge. But it still has to go in the circular filing cabinet.
Before performant made it into the OED as an adjective, the nominal form was listed as a "nonce-word" only and didn't merit its own entry; it was kept under performance. It was never widespread in any dialect, unlike modern performant.
-Ant/-ent is not reserved for nouns anyway. There are informants, inhabitants, defendants, and many others, of course, but they can be ignorant, hesitant, pleasant, constant, tolerant, conversant, triumphant, significant, vigilant, dominant, compliant, adamant, reluctant, elegant...
Some of the second group fall into both categories, adjective and noun. Frequently the one form came later than the other. Add performant to that long list.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/perfo...
My joke?
(I always forget how HN is hostile to whimsy. Even when it is carefully signposted with an emoticon.)
Just to add though: a word making its way into a dictionary is no guarantee of its usefulness, correctness or value. It only means a couple of definitions have been found in print. That's the standard by which words make it into dictionaries; there's no semantic gatekeeper.
All that said, "correct" in language is "incorrect" tomorrow. That's how it's always worked.
If I learned to accept "entitled" as meaning "given a title" I'm sure we can all handle a fairly terse and parseable usage for performant.
No, not you -- that was exasperation at the sudden, aggressive downvoting of what was clearly signposted as a joke. > I'm not sure calling someone wrong accompanied with an emoticon qualifies as whimsical, either.
It was as clearly whimsical as I can make it. Complimenting on being wrong on something so small.
But you're just making my point for me. I genuinely forget this place hates jokes that don't come with footnotes.
> If I learned to accept "entitled" as meaning "given a title" I'm sure we can all handle a fairly terse and parseable usage for performant.
"Never give up! Never surrender!"
I've seen plenty of humorous posts received well here when they're not jokes for the sake of the joke.