Learn English – How to understand the word cascade in CSS

meaning

Why it is called cascade, instead of inheritable, or derivable, or chained, or something else? Maybe I have misunderstood the word? And, when should I use the word cascade in my own software architectures?

Best Answer

Cascading is used in a manner specifically referring to the priority-based rule matching mechanism. Inherit would tend to be avoided because CSS isn't a programming language, and the way cascading rules work illustrates that; CSS cascading is actually very nearly the opposite of OOP inheritance. Chaining implies entities being joinable in sequence in a way that isn't the case with CSS. Derivable tends to imply a bottom-up organization, like with inheritance, where CSS's is more top-down.

If you are making architecture that involves a broad set of entities with subsets being targeted for processing by arbitrary rule sets that can override each other based on their priority, then I would say sure, use cascading as part of its description.

Whateverize is always a word

Yes, of course versionize is a “real word” — and no disparaging remarks about its parentage should be made in polite company.

This is because ‑ize is a productive suffix in English that’s used to produce a new verb from various nouns and adjectives. That means that any word derived by combining an existing one of those using ‑ize is _{^{AUTOMATICALLY}} also a “real word”.

This remains true under all conditions:

The result is still a “real word” even if you cannot find that word in any dictionary howsoever complete, abstruse, current, or hip said dictionary should happen to be.
The result is still a “real word” even if Google despite its omniscience cannot find that word anywhere.
The result is still a “real word” even if nobody but nobody in the entire world has ever before used that word. This particular sort of production is one that happens every day; it’s called making a _^NONCE-WORD. They’re one-shot words that are used once only as the need arises and then put back in the cupboard, perhaps never to be seen again. The OED lists many such nonce-words, including pedestrianize, cricketize, Londonize, Klondykize, and even Joe-Millerize, plus many more besides.

Indeed, the OED specifically states that such nonce-words are “WITHOUT LIMIT”, and that means there really and truly are infinitely many of them.

It cannot be made plainer than that, for something that is without limit cannot be limited — it is illimitable. Such ‑ize derivations know no bound, for -ize is an infinite font of new words, a spring that can never run dry.

In fact, given an ‑ize word, no matter whether of ancient provenance like baptize or a nonce-word like Joe-Millerize, a whole slew of other “real words” automatically derive from that. The OED specifically notes that this occurs when it says under its entry for ‑ize:

Verbs in -ize have the usual derivative adjs. and sbs., as ppl. adj. in -ed (often more used than the vb.) as ‘sensitized paper’; ppl. adj. in -ing, chiefly from the intrans. use, as ‘Judaizing Christians’, ‘a philosophizing writer’; vbl. sb. in -ing, as ‘the Bowdlerizing of Shakspere’; agent-noun in -izer (sometimes coexistent with a formation on the Greek type in _^-IST), as colonizer (colonist); noun of action in -ization (sometimes coexistent with one from Gr. in _^-ISM), as civilization, organization (organism).

Hence:

baptize, baptized, baptizing, baptizer, †baptization
_{That ‘†’ up there prefixing the last word on the previous line is how the OED erects a memorial cross over the grave of a word that has shuffled off this mortal coil: one that’s now considered obsolete. Baptization is an example of a “real word” that failed to remained current, probably due to competition with baptism. It is unlikely that many tears were shed at its funeral.}
versionize, versionized, versionizing, versionizer, versionization
Londonize, Londonized, Londonizing, Londonizer, Londonization
Joe-Millerize, Joe-Millerized, Joe-Millerizing, Joe-Millerizer, Joe-Millerization

When duly applied to existing words of the applicable type, productive affixes _^ALWAYS produce “real words”, for thus is the nature of productivity: it is inherently productive.

Aesthetics, however, is something else altogether.

It is always still a word — even if you don’t like it!

In other words, it behaves exactly like how anything derived from existing words using productive affixes like ‑ly, ‑able, un-, and pre- is also automatically a “real word”.

Unlike little-known Greek affixes like achroö- or -dactyl but more like pseudo- or ‑cracy, the ‑ize suffix has been sufficiently naturalized in English that any native speaker can be expected to know exactly what is meant by any new word derived using it, not just specialists and Hellenists alone.

Mind you, just because anyone anywhere will automatically understand it does not necessarily mean that they will _^LIKE it.

Indeed, words created in this way are often heavily stigmatized, especially if they are then subsequently nominalized using the ‑ation suffix. It might well be better to start over instead of going from a noun to a verb and back to a noun again.

One criticism of such words is that they tend to occur in documents produced by organizations known for impenetrably turgid prose. But complaining of their turgidity or boisterousness is a different criticism altogether. And it’s hardly a new complaint either: see the Nashe citation from 1591 below, and you will realize that people have been gnashing their teeth as this tired old chestnut for more than four centuries.

These sorts of derived words are also criticized as being unnecessary when a simpler and perfectly suitable word or short phrase already exists, such as we see with incentivize being tut-tutted as a clumsy alternative for motivate or give an incentive.

Government documents and business jargon are both notorious for this sort of obfuscatory cant. That’s why so many of the entries on Forbes’ famous list of The Most Annoying, Pretentious And Useless Business Jargon are words created through these same processes. Refactor looks fancier and more self-important than rewrite or redesign, just as reify looks way more high-falutin’ than create, realize, or thingify ever can.

Or so the theory goes. Whatever the reason, we too often get a muddled mess out of such organizations instead of getting plain English. So complaints like those are not wholly ungrounded.

But that still has nothing to do with whether it is a “real word”. Of course it is. It _^HAS to be, because that’s how _^PRODUCTIVE affixes work: they _^PRODUCE words.

Quoth the OED

Here is the OED’s unstigmaticized description of the ‑ize suffix:

-ize, also written -ise

suffix forming vbs. = F. -ise-r, It. -izare, Sp. -izar, ad. late L. -izāre, -īzāre, f. Gr. -ίζειν, formative derivative of vbs.
The Greek verbs were partly intrans., as βαρβαρίζειν to play the barbarian, act or speak as a barbarian, side with the barbarians, τυραννίζειν to side with the tyrants, partly trans. as καθαρίζειν to purify, clean, θήσαυρίζειν to treasure up.

Those formed on national, sectarian, or personal names were primarily intransitive, as Ἀττικίζειν to Atticize in manners, to speak Attic, Φιλιππίζειν to act or speak for Philip, to philippize, Ἑλληνίζειν to ‘do’ the Greek, act as a Greek, speak Greek, Hellenize; also, to make Greek. A few words of this form connected with or used in early Christianity, were latinized already in the 3rd or 4th c. by Christian writers: such were βαπτίζειν baptizāre, εὐαγγελίζειν euangelizāre, κατηχίζειν catechizāre, σκανδαλίζειν scandalizāre, ἀναθηματίζειν anathēmatizāre, χριστιανίζειν christiānizāre, ἰουδαίζειν iūdaizāre. Others continued to be formed both in ecclesiastical and philosophical use, e.g. canōnizāre, dæmonizāre, syllogizāre (Boethius Aristot. Anal.); and this became established as the normal form for the latinizing of Greek verbs, or the formation of verbs upon Greek analogies.

In med.L. and the mod. langs. these have been formed also on L. or modern national names, and the use has been extended to the formation of verbs from L. adjs. or sbs. This practice prob. began first in French; in mod.F. the suffix has become -iser, alike in words from Greek, as baptiser, évangéliser, organiser, and those formed after them from L., as civiliser, cicatriser, humaniser. Hence, some have used the spelling -ise in Eng., as in French, for all these words, and some prefer -ise in words formed in French or Eng. from L. elements, retaining -ize for those of Gr. composition.

But the suffix itself, whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Gr. -ιζειν, L. -izāre; and, as the pronunciation is also with z, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling should be followed, in opposition to that which is at once etymological and phonetic. In this Dictionary the termination is uniformly written -ize. (In the Gr. -ιζ-, the i was short, so originally in L., but the double consonant z (= _^DZ, _^TS) made the syllable long; when the z became a simple consonant, -idz became īz, whence Eng. /-aɪz/.)

In current English the following groups may be noted:
1. Words that have come down from Greek, or have been at some time adopted from Greek, or formed on Greek elements; a. with the trans. sense of ‘make or conform to, or treat in the way of, the thing expressed by the derivation’, as baptize (prob. the earliest -ize word in Eng.), anathematize, anatomize, apostrophize, canonize, catechize, cauterize, characterize, christianize, crystallize, diphthongize, harmonize, idolize, monopolize, organize, phlebotomize, stigmatize, symbolize,systematize, tantalize; b. with the intrans. sense ‘to act some person or character, do or follow some practice’, as agonize, apologize, apostatize, botanize, dogmatize, geologize, philosophize, syllogize, sympathize, theorize.
2. Words formed (in Fr. or Eng.) on Latin adjs. and sbs. (esp. on derivative adjs. in -al, -ar, -an, etc.), mostly with the trans. sense ‘to make (that which is expressed by the derivation)’, as actualize, authorize, brutalize, civilize, colonize, consonantize, devocalize, eternize, etherealize, familiarize, fertilize, formalize, fossilize, humanize, immortalize, legalize, memorize, nationalize, naturalize, neutralize, patronize, pulverize, realize, satirize, scrutinize, secularize, signalize, solemnize, spiritualize, sterilize, terrorize, vocalize; trans. or intrans., as cicatrize, extemporize, moralize, particularize; less frequently only intrans., as temporize.
3. Words from later sources, as bastardize, foreignize, jeopardize, villanize, womanize trans., gormandize, and such nonce-words as cricketize, pedestrianize, tandemize, intr.
4. Words formed on ethnic adjs., and the like, chiefly trans. but sometimes intrans., as Americanize, Anglicize, Gallicize, Germanize, Latinize, Romanize, Russianize.
5. Words formed on names of persons, sometimes with the intrans. Greek sense of ‘to act like, or in accordance with’, as in Calvinize, Coryatize, but usually in the trans. sense of ‘to treat like, or after the method of, or according to the (chemical or other) process of’; as in Boucherize, Bowdlerize, Burnettize, galvanize, Grangerize, macadamize, mesmerize, Rumfordize; with many technical and commercial terms, and nonce-words such as Gladstonize, Irvingize, Joe Millerize, Merry-Andrewize, without limit.
6. From names of substances, chemical and other; in the trans. sense of ‘to charge, impregnate, treat, affect, or influence with’; as alcoholize, alkalize, carbonize, de-oxidize, hydrogenize, oxidize, ozonize, silverize, etc.; so in nonce-words, as Londonize to make like London, etc.

Verbs in -ize have the usual derivative adjs. and sbs., as ppl. adj. in -ed (often more used than the vb.) as ‘sensitized paper’; ppl. adj. in -ing, chiefly from the intrans. use, as ‘Judaizing Christians’, ‘a philosophizing writer’; vbl. sb. in -ing, as ‘the Bowdlerizing of Shakspere’; agent-noun in -izer (sometimes coexistent with a formation on the Greek type in _^-IST), as colonizer (colonist); noun of action in -ization (sometimes coexistent with one from Gr. in _^-IST), as civilization, organization (organism).

Hey, if you think versionize is bad. . . .

Anyone who lifts a supercilious eyebrow at the notion of versionize as a “real word” should pay especial attention to the rich — some might say outlandish — examples provided by the OED in its citations for ‑ize, because quite frankly I think you will astonished at some of these, which I have placed in bold to help guie your eye to their awesomeness:

The following are illustrations of some of the recent uses of the suffix:

1591 Nashe Introd. Sidney’s Astr. & Stella in P. Penilesse (Shaks. Soc.) p. xxx, ― Reprehenders, that complain of my boystrous compound wordes, and ending my Italionate coyned verbes all in ize.
1611 Florio, ― Inpetrarcato, Petrarchized.
1618 J. Taylor (Water P.) Journ. Scotl., ― I haue a smacke of Coriatizing.
1682 D’Urfey Butler’s Ghost II. 177 ― Ralpho··takes the Tongs··and snaps him by the Nose··surpriz’d, To be thus rudely dunstaniz’d.
1796 Coleridge Lett. I. 209 ― We might Rumfordize one of the chimneys.
1833 Blackw. Mag. XXXIV. 533 ― It is a taste that, to coin a word, insignificantizes everything-unpoetizes nature.
1840 New Monthly Mag. LIX. 492 ― Tandemizing, cricketizing, boatizing, et omne quod exit in izing, is not to be carried on without a considerable expenditure.
1858 Sat. Rev. V. 264/2 ― He has no fear of Tower-Hamletizing the land.
1858 Sat. Rev. VI. 203/2 ― To Perkin-Warbeckize a pretender is the best, because not the most spirited, policy.
1861 T. L. Peacock Gryll Gr. viii, ― Arch-quacks have taken to merry‐andrewizing in a new arena.
1866 Sat. Rev. 10 Nov. (L.), ― If a man··is funny, and succeeds in Joe-Millerizing history, he pleases somebody or other.
1876 Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 164 ― Of the first class [Preservation of Timber] the three best known processes are: (a) Burnetising, (b) Kyanising, and (c) Boucherising.
1881 Mahaffy in Academy 23 Apr. 295 ― She does not Irvingise Shylock.
1885 Jeaffreson Real Shelley II. 192 ― The troop of nakedized children rushed downstairs.
1894 Westm. Gaz. 21 Mar. 7/3 ― These instruments, before they are used, should always be strictly anti-septicized.
1897 A. Lang in Blackw. Mag. Feb. 187 ― To do this is not to Celticise but to Macphersonise.
1897 Westm. Gaz. 28 July 6/1 ― The word ‘Klondykised’ has been coined to express the conditions of persons who have caught the mania [for seeking gold at Klondyke]... The effect has been to ‘Klondykise’ nearly all the people of the town.
1898 L. A. Tollemache Talks w. Gladstone 114 note, ― It [the passage] is, as it were, Canning Gladstonized.

Yup, that’s right; you really did just read about “nakedized children”.

As you can see, we’ve gone minting new words using this suffix for centuries and centuries, and little ol’ versionize is utterly unexceptionable compared with many you’ve just read above.

In fact, it’s downright boring, so much so that you might even say, as the citations suggest, that it has been insignificantized by all those others.
_{(And yes, I can hear you all groaning out there, but it’s right there in print ever since way back in 1833, for goodness’ sake!)}

Nifty, eh? That’s productivity for you! Surely ‑ize is as fecund a suffix as you can imagine, maybe even more fecund than you _^WANT to imagine. :)

Summary

So yeah, versionize is a “real word” — and in fact, it _^HAS to be.

But you certainly don’t have to like it if you don’t want to. Just don’t go expecting everybody else in the whole world to share your own peculiar likes and dislikes.

Indeed, it’s probably better if you expect that they won’t share them. By setting your expectations appropriately, you will make life a great deal easier on yourself — and on others.

Postscript

Although some folks may find certain combinations and applications ugly and perhaps even awkward, one should _^NEVER accuse someone of making bastards: it is not only impolite, it might be downright dangerous.

In other words, if linguists don’t talk about “bastardizing” language, perhaps no one else should be doing that either.

For that matter, you might also want to tread lightly when it comes to “real words”.

Best Answer

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