Charles and Christy’s Weblog

One word I’ve heard and read a lot lately is robust. I’m tired of it.

This word, especially in the context of macroeconomics, is overused and abused so much that it is nearly devoid of meaning anymore.

Tax cuts, recoveries, GDP growth, sales, employment - it is applied as an adjective everywhere with no technical requirements for what it means to be “robust.”

Merriam-Webster, by way of Britannica defines it as:

1 a : having or exhibiting strength or vigorous health b : having or showing vigor, strength, or firmness <a robust debate> <a robust faith> c : strongly formed or constructed : STURDY <a robust plastic>
2 : ROUGH, RUDE <stories… laden with robust, down-home imagery — Playboy>
3 : requiring strength or vigor <robust work>
4 : FULL-BODIED <robust coffee>; also : HEARTY <a robust dinner>
5 : relating to, resembling, or being any of the primitive, relatively large, heavyset hominids (genus Australopithecus and especially A. robustus and A. boisei) characterized especially by heavy molars and small incisors adapted to a vegetarian diet — compare GRACILE 3

Perhaps we need a yellow-orange-red scaling system.

I propose these:

1. diseased
2. sickly
3. weak
4. Sound
5. Prosperous
6. flourishing

Other recommendations welcome.