Teeth May Become Impacted, But Judicial Sentences, Certainly Not

Celebrity legal reporter Harvey Levin made a big impact recently misusing the word "impact" when he commented on football star, dog abuser Michael Vick's guilty plea. He said to Larry King,

"If he (Vick) snitches it will impact his sentence." That is, by pleading guilty, Vick indicates he will cooperate with government prosecutors in a way that might lead to more convictions in the dog fighting/killing field.

What Mr. Levin meant to say was that Vick's snitching will likely, influence in a helpful way his ultimate prison sentence.

"Impact" used as a verb means: to physically press firmly on or into something, to pack in. Clearly, nothing will physically press against Vick's court decision. A figurative use of impact allows for the "influence of a person or thing upon another person or thing," in ways positive and negative, but the word is used as a noun usually in a phrase with either "make" or "have" as: Vick's snitching may have an impact upon his sentence.

If Levin made an impact upon the sensitive ears of some of us, the sound of the "collision" stemmed from a fatal error in usage.