• information •
Pronunciation: in-fêr-may-shên • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. Facts or other knowledge about some specific subject. 2. The act of informing or anything conveyed by informing. 3. (Computer science) Processed, stored, or transmitted data.
Notes: Since we are currently living in the Information Age, today's word is most relevant. It comes with two negative forms: disinformation and misinformation, both meaning "false information", but the former means "intentional false information". Information is often clipped down to just info colloquially. The adjective is informational. The verb inform also has an adjective, informative.
In Play: Information occurs on a large scale: "Authoritarians stay in power as long as they control all sources of information." It also occurs on a small scale: "Mom knows I'm a troublemaker at school. I would like to know her source of information." Scale doesn't matter.
Word History: Today's Good Word was taken from Old French informacion "advice, instruction", which it inherited from Latin informatio(n) "idea, conception, shaping", the action noun for informare "to form, shape, mold". This underlying Latin verb comprises in "in(to)" + formare "to form, shape", based on forma "form, shape, design". The best guess as to where forma came from is the same place as the Greek cognate morphe "form, shape, design" with an unusual metathesis of [m-f] to [f-m]. (Remember the odd metathesis of [k] with [p] in spek- > skep- in Greek?) Whatever the case, the trail ends here. Form has taken on new meanings. In the UK form is the educational equivalent of US grade and "He has form" means "He has a police record". (Now a bit of information about Eileen Opiolka. She has been an active Agoran for more than a decade and suggested we look at today's engaging Good Word.)
