OK... just to be fair to me, I feel I should mention that there are more than one million (1,000,000) English words, so how on earth could I possibly know them all?
And, as in every language, there are words that are used only or at least primarily in specific occupational and professional fields.
I have often searched, with little success, for a reasonable antonym to the noun "benefit".
Today I read it for the first time in my life in a newspaper.
DISBENEFIT / DIS-BENEFIT
According to American and British dictionaries it means:
- something disadvantageous or objectionable
- a disadvantage or loss resulting from something
- Dis-benefits are the outcomes from a programme which are perceived by one or more stakeholders as negative, e.g. new operational costs, or loss of green space in an area due to the building of a new school. The same change can be seen by different stakeholders as both a benefit (net cost reduction through fewer staff) and a dis-benefit (job losses). These dis-benefits can be classified, managed and measured in the same way as benefits.
Apparently this noun came into use in 1968, and it is used primarily in the fields of urban planning and economics.
So... can we use this word in other contexts, for example, when we want to use it as an antonym to the noun benefit?... I wonder...
Since many non-native speakers are using and learning English, there is no wonder English is always being changed and modified by non-English speakers. Probably native speakers are confused by some wording created by non-native speaker, but that has happened to many languages in the world in the passing human history.
In terms of practicality, I think most speakers are adopting their familiar words with their logic thinking to describe context, feeling or intention, on the other hand they are learning new words, phrases with other English speakers. I recall I used "geyser" in a conversation with a local native speaker but he does not know this word and he told me they call it as "hot water system"
Thanks, Richard. It's made its way into the dictionary (somehow) and so now we can't criticise a poor student who guessed the existence of this word, in the absence of better inspiration.
I prefer "drawback", "shortcoming", and "downside".
I think it's a bad word because "benefit" has the positive meaning of something that you provide to someone. But with "disbenefit", are we taking something away from someone, or perhaps not giving them anything at all, or giving them something bad? This word gets worse, the more I think about it. I'm sinking ever deeper into curmudgeonliness, though am glad that I have at least one ally!
Nilton... I'm sure I don't know 500,000 of the 1,000,000 English words, but I probably don't need to know them either :) and I'm quite sure that a lot of native E speakers don't know this word. Thank you for your comments.
Michael... Where do I begin?
It appears we both belong to the 'curmudgeon club', because I don't like the sound of it as well.
Other sources also indicate that it is rarely used.
Nonetheless, I do wonder if we could use it as an antonym to 'benefit'.
Thank you for your comments.
SuKi... Where are you when I need you :)
Thank you for checking on 'widgeon'/'wigeon', Sudeep. You're right that it is sometimes spelt without the 'd', and it might even be the more common spelling. The Collins dictionary, for example, lists the spelling with a 'd' and gives the one without as an alternative.
Widgeons are fine birds, by the way - much prettier and daintier than ordinary ducks. There is one on the park lake near my home, and I'm always cheered up by the sight of him.
