Premise vs. Premises in the Cloud
With all of the research I’ve been doing for our latest book: Cloud Computing for Dummies, I’ve noticed something very disturbing. Maybe it’s because I come from a telecommunications background, that this bothers me so much – but has anyone else noticed that people are misusing the word premise when describing aspects of the cloud? I keep reading articles and blogs where an author refers to an “on premise” solution. The proper term is premises as in – on your premises (see below).
From Dictionary.com
Premise: a proposition supporting or helping to support a conclusion.
Premises: a tract of land including its buildings.
Even vendors in the space are making this mistake. It’s appalling. I could list dozens of examples of this error. Has the definition of the word changed and I’m missing something? Or, has the word been used incorrectly so many times that it doesn’t matter anymore?
Ditto for the words sex vs gender. I guess majority rules in these things.
Apparently Web 2.0 (http://tinyurl.com/n48e5c) was just crowned the one millionth word in the English language by a group called The Global Language Monitor. It got there by sheer force. There is some dispute as to how this all works but since no one controls language, common usage will over rule the grammarians every time. Don’t tell your English teacher!
Check out the story though, apparently “cloud computing” is now on the list. My problem with that of course is that “cloud computing” is a concept comprised of two words and not a word in and of itself. Oh well!
Jim Catalano
Jim Catalano
June 12, 2009
I’m a lawyer for a state agency in Tennessee, and I hear people misuse this word every day. I can understand why they’d make this mistake, but it makes me cringe nevertheless.
I think what will happen is that premise will become an acceptable, singular form of premises. The speed of communication and the tendency people have nowadays to dismiss prescriptivists like me as pedants will ensure that this is the case. Meaning is not prescribed. It’s determined by consensus.
Keith
June 16, 2009
You are probably correct. Tower of Babel, here we come!
fbhalper
June 16, 2009
[...] with Judith Hurwitz, Robin Bloor and Marcia Kaufman. I did, however, post a short blog about premise vs. premises, which I urge anyone involved in Cloud Computing to [...]
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