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Gene Foreman has an issue with âissues.â
âI see the misuse of âissuesâ as a synonym for âproblemsâ as part of the annoying trend toward euphemisms in journalism,â Foreman, a legendary newspaper editor, wrote. âIt may be less threatening to tell someone you have âissuesâ with him or her, but that erodes language precision.â
Letâs look at that simple word, âissue.â As a noun or verb, it has dozens of definitions, from something sent forth (âThe government issued a decree banning the practiceâ) to progeny (âAll of the rich manâs issue gathered for a reading of his willâ).
Reading the entry for âissueâ in The Oxford English Dictionary is like walking through etymological history. One of the earliest citations for any use of âissueâ is from 1374, with the definition âin reference to things immaterial, or to coming out of a condition.â Itâs from Troilus and Cressida: âHis sorwes that he spared hadde, He yaf an yssue large, and deth he cride.â (Very loose translation from Chaucerâs Middle English: âHis sorrows finally caught up with him, and he cried for death.â You could even say he âissuedâ a cry for death.)
After that, new definitions were frequently added; the new coinages came to a screeching halt in the eighteenth century and resumed in the nineteenth. In the early group are the roots of Foremanâs âissueâ with âissuesâ: Among the definitions, according to the OED, were âto join in issueâ (1430); âto proceed to argument with a person on a particular point, offered or selectedâ (1551); âto take up the opposite side of a case, or a contrary view on a questionâ (1697). In other words, to have âissuesâ with something, though not yet with someone.
The OED is not the unbending, stodgy authority it once was (if it ever was). It now updates quarterly, with new words and revisions to old ones, which means that it sometimes reacts faster to changes than many other dictionaries. So itâs easier to watch the evolution of newer coinages. In 2003, for example, it added another definition for âissuesâ: âEmotional or psychological difficulties (freq. with modifying word); points of emotional conflict.â That usage, it says, first cited in The New York Times in 1982, is âchiefly U.S.â Thatâs pretty close to the usage Foreman objects to, though not quite there.
Weâre not at the point where an authority as accepted as the OED has endorsed referring to my problems with you as âissues,â and English speakers have a time-honoredâand legitimateâhabit of using words however they want to, often leading to dictionariesâ adopting those uses. And even some âhipâ and âlooserâ dictionaries join Foreman in rejecting âissuesâ as a synonym for problems: Most of the definitions of âissuesâ on urbandictionary.com call it a euphemism. More MSD (mainstream dictionaries) donât include it, though Merriam-Webster does: âI have issues with his behavior.â
Weâre not in a position to âissueâ a proclamation banning this euphemism, but in the interest of keeping English and journalism as precise as possible, and avoid euphemisms, it might be a good idea to ditch it. You got a problem with that?
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