The Fed may "impact" you, don't turn your back!

Here we go again with the word "impact." From a recent headline on a financial web site called "Seeking Alpha":

"How the Fed's Decision Impacts You"

This time, Ben Bernancke and the Fed might impact you. Oh nooo... Once more, "impact" used as a verb means: press against, collide, crash, affect strongly, influence (advised to use with an adjective); pack in, squeeze in.

The Fed will press against us, or worse, squeeze itself in! Into what? Into our very selves?! Of course not, but because the word was used literally, we might be wary of turning our backs on the Fed and its chief operator Mr. Bernancke.

The headline could have read: "The Fed might make an adverse impact on you." This way, you use "impact" as a noun which means "influence," together with a qualifying adjective which clarifies the point.

Otherwise, if the Fed and Chairman Bernancke impact you, they collide with you just as two NFL football bodies collide with each other, or just as celestial bodies make terrible collisions out there in the enormity* of cold, dark space.

*See Dr. Seth Shostak's comment 7/29/08.

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