I know that security people use the verb "to compromise" with the meaning of "to break", for example in "the integrity of the account has been compromised". But is it okay to also use the noun "compromise" in this context? My dictionary only has that meaning as a verb ("to weaken"), but the noun seems to be reserved for "middle state between conflicting opinions". On the other hand, you get a lot of hits on Google for "data compromise".
Learn English – A data compromise
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I was able to find a few instances of computer and car products being described as brutal:
one here:
Asrock 970 Pro3 promises brutal performance with 8-core AMD CPUs.
and another here:
The Mazda 6 MPS is a more refined, larger car that offers more space and luxury together with the brutal performance of it's [sic] turbocharged engine.
I'll point out that I had to wade through some irrelevant content (much of it using brutal with a negative connotation) in order to find these. You will also notice that these examples are not from major marketing campaigns. I also searched YouTube for "brutal performance" and got lots of hits for loud cars (most of the results were for rock music videos).
The intended meaning of brutal in these instances is probably some combination of strong and rugged, or perhaps even manly or interested more in power than the feelings of others. How it is actually interpreted will vary from person to person, but some people will probably receive a negative feeling from the word (I am reminded of a list of adjectives in Hobbes' Leviathan, "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short").
As for whether it is okay to use the word in marketing, that all depends on the image that you want to put forward. Sometimes a company is okay with being seen as focused on raw power rather than on other positive attributes (perhaps to attract customers who think, "I don't care if my engine is quiet, as long as it's fast!") In that case, I would say brutal is just fine to use.
Other words (possibly with different connotations) that might appear in similar marketing outlets are:
- savage
- beastly
- unrestrained
- rugged
- powerful
OED suggests that countable evidences are either obsolete, obsolescent or very specialised.
The countable entries are
†2. Manifestation; display. Obs.
3. a. An appearance from which inferences may be drawn; an indication, mark, sign, token, trace.1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xv. 99 A day..was spent in examining the evidences of ancient glacier action.
3. b. In religious language: Signs or tokens of personal salvation.
1758 S. Hayward Seventeen Serm. xvi. 493 A person just entering upon eternity..with his evidences all dark.
†4. Example, instance (frequent in Gower).
5. †b. an evidence: something serving as a proof.
5. c. Evidence or Evidences of Christianity , Evidences of the Christian Religion, or simply The Evidences.
6. a. Information, whether in the form of personal testimony, the language of documents, or the production of material objects, that is given in a legal investigation, to establish the fact or point in question. Also, an evidence = a piece of evidence.
†7. a. One who furnishes testimony or proof; a witness. Obs.
†7. b. transf. A spy. Obs.
†8. A document by means of which a fact is established. Obs. exc. Hist. and in legal formulæ.
Of the countable senses not marked as obsolete, 3, 5c and 6 are all specialised uses, and possibly obsolescent. The latest citations which are explicitly plural are 1860 and 1758 [there may be later uses; this is just what's included by OED], which would certainly indicate that usage could be expected to decline.
However, 3a does cover your quote about "evidences of prehistoric settlement". This would appear to be a valid specialised use, and the fact that it is specialised might explain the low incidence.
Best Answer
I wouldn't use compromise as a noun in a security context. Some possible alternatives:
These all have other meanings, but each of them has gained traction in a security setting and would be understood (although "penetration" might cause some giggles among the middle-school crowd) in a way that "compromise" would not.