Wednesday, January 09, 2008
I Need a Place to Quiess My Weary Head
Information Technology people love to make up words. In a recent technical change deployment guide, that I had the privilege to vet, the following instruction was found:
1. Quiess the Testing Environment.
So...what the heck does quiess mean, everyone asked. Well the grammar detective squad got right on it. Turns out that there is no such verb. Doesn't exist. Never did. What's happened is that some geek who knows more about fibre optic cabling than language thinks (s)he is also an expert in the fine art of human communication. The nerd has gotten it into her head that just because she knows the $5.00 word queiscent and can use it in a sentence to impress her new boyfriend, that she can make up a word that she thinks derives from the root. In fact, it's a feeble attempt to create a verb from the Latin quiescere that means "to become quiet or rest". So our misguided geek wants to put the testing environment in a state of quiet or inactivity, perhaps to distinguish that state from a complete shutdown of servers and services. That's my guess. Here is the definition that has gotten our technical guru into all the trouble in the first place: (from the online Webster's dictionary -)
Main Entry: qui·es·cent
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin quiescent-, quiescens, present participle of quiescere to become quiet, rest, from quies
Date: 1605
1 : marked by inactivity or repose : tranquilly at rest 2 : causing no trouble or symptoms
synonyms see latent
— qui·es·cent·ly adverb
1. Quiess the Testing Environment.
So...what the heck does quiess mean, everyone asked. Well the grammar detective squad got right on it. Turns out that there is no such verb. Doesn't exist. Never did. What's happened is that some geek who knows more about fibre optic cabling than language thinks (s)he is also an expert in the fine art of human communication. The nerd has gotten it into her head that just because she knows the $5.00 word queiscent and can use it in a sentence to impress her new boyfriend, that she can make up a word that she thinks derives from the root. In fact, it's a feeble attempt to create a verb from the Latin quiescere that means "to become quiet or rest". So our misguided geek wants to put the testing environment in a state of quiet or inactivity, perhaps to distinguish that state from a complete shutdown of servers and services. That's my guess. Here is the definition that has gotten our technical guru into all the trouble in the first place: (from the online Webster's dictionary -)
Main Entry: qui·es·cent
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin quiescent-, quiescens, present participle of quiescere to become quiet, rest, from quies
Date: 1605
1 : marked by inactivity or repose : tranquilly at rest 2 : causing no trouble or symptoms
synonyms see latent
— qui·es·cent·ly adverb
# posted by Ninja @ 2:03 PM 
Comments:
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Well, the term predates the widespread use of fiber optics; I remember it being used in 1985 when I started working on mainframes; you would "quiess the queue" (not let anything new in, so the machine could work the backlog down to zero)
# posted by 
: 12:26 PM
: 12:26 PM
Perhaps they spelled it wrong?
quiesce
v. i. 1. To be silent, as a letter; to have no sound.
[imp. & p. p. Quiesced ; p. pr. & vb. n. Quiescing .]
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quiesce
quiesce
v. i. 1. To be silent, as a letter; to have no sound.
[imp. & p. p. Quiesced ; p. pr. & vb. n. Quiescing .]
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quiesce
# posted by : 4:18 PM
: 4:18 PM
Excellent comments! I very much agree. Here is something else that is used in much the same way: "Drain stopping" a process or set of transaction or a queue.
The word quiesce has very much been there in the English Language, though it hasn't found much usage, except now, in computers. Your geek does know a good bit of English too, probably more than you, but simply misspelled the word. Here's an example: "The wind died down so as to quiesce the seas around the tall ships".... Cheers!
Thanks sky clipper - you are quite right - since I posted this, it has come to my attention that the word can be used in the context the geek tried to use it. The geek happened to be educated in the British system so it makes much sense. And yes he did misspell it.
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