Tuesday night, I was talking on the phone with my best friend. He asked me when I intended to retire for the evening, and, to my utter horror, I said "soonish". You may have noticed that the rising generation has begun using the 'ish' construct. Most of their applications are completely slang, and I was a little annoyed with myself that I have allowed that corruption of the language to rub off on me.
The first time I recall saying 'ish' without it being a word I had actually learned in school was summer 2009. My same friend asked me how I was that day, and, having just heard an advertisement for a business on the radio, adapted the name to my state of being and replied that I was 'wellish', meaning 'pertaining to a state of wellness'. Since then, I have studied the origins of this phraseology and determined that although it is correct, the people who apply it apply it generally incorrectly and in a way that annoys me.
Addition of 'ish' to a word in English is very common. It first came into use during the Shakespearean era, being used as a suffix to add to the end of nouns to render them into adjectives. Thus, 'reddish' came from 'red', 'English' came from 'Engles', and 'foolish' from 'fool' to imply either an actual state or an approximation for use of description or comparison. However, the suffix 'ish' can only be added in the case of an adjective. This makes my use of 'wellish' correct when I say "I am in a wellish mood today" but not when I say "I feel wellish today" because the latter is an adverb isoform.
How and why does this become a problem? The current generation is fixated with the 'ish' isoform of words. They use it as part of their spontaneity, to sound cool or vogue, but mostly because it is slang. Here are some I have recently heard that are incorrect:
I don't knowish.
We will start around noonish.
The first is a verb. The second is an adverb because it revolves around time. The second is also redundant because 'around noon' would mean the same as 'noonish' (if noonish were a word).
With verbs, it's a problem because it's non-committal. You cannot be ambivalent about an action or state of being. Either you are driving or breathing or you are not. There is nothing 'like unto breathing'. You are either on your way or you are not. There is no half-measure.
With adverbs, it's a problem because of a similar reason. It lacks commitment. "Around noonish" can mean any time whatsoever, and the rising generation are not known for punctuality or reliability. I try very hard to be around five minutes early for things. Most young people are 15 minutes late or more. To me, 'noonish', even if it were a word means, 'within 10 minutes either way of noon'. When they say it, I know they won't be early, and it becomes an excuse to be however late they please. "I told you I'd be there around noonish." "It's two-thirty." "So?" You come that late, you steal my time.
This summer I started a book called "America's Syndrome- a Corruption of the Language." If Henry Higgins thought it was bad in the film 'My Fair Lady', he would be even more appalled today at the cold bloody murder of the English tongue. For years, I have been saying that there is an exception to every rule in English except for this one. That's what makes English so difficult to learn and use and why it is one of the worst languages in which to communicate. English is one of the worst languages in which to communicate because it obfuscates meaning, omits detail, ensnares the senses, misleads the mind, and expresses nearly enough to any number of putative interpretations that you can say almost anything and mean either everything or nothing at all depending on how recipients take it.
Since the Oxford English Dictionary has decided to add 'lol' and 'wysiwyg' and 'sick' (meaning cool or hip) to its lexicon in their slang forms, it is clear that the OED is no longer an authoritative repository of how English should be used and simply an interpretive tool to describe how to understand it. They are more interested in the commerce associated with the work of selling the dictionary than they are at scholarly security of true expression and language. Learn to use your language well and keep the good habits of expression you have, or at least give it your best effort. Language well used is one of the last bastions of civilization.
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