Berni Armstrong Jul 24, 2010:

Why keep them guessing? When we have the phrase "good compromisers" already existing in the language, it seems redundant to adopt or coin the term "pactist". Also "pact" is a double edged sword. Has pact got negative or positive echoes in English? That depends entirely on the context in which it is used. "A pact among thieves" or "a political pact", generally have rather negative echoes, implying an agreement to exploit, for example. But: "It was a pact that sealed the friendship between the two sides" would be more positive. "Pactist" in itself would not tell me whether this was a quality to be admired or looked at warily. On the other hand, someone able to reach “a good compromise” is unequivocally a “good egg” – compromise being seen as a quintessentially English characteristic.

S Ben Price (asker) Jul 24, 2010:

I did consider that, Montse. But in English, we don’t have the word "pactist" or "pactism", and the closest word (pacticious?) is only tangientialy related to the meaning that this word has in Spanish or Catalan. And, if you were to infer meaning from the morphemes, you would almost surely arrive at the wrong conclusion of what the word means. So, I think I have to include the term and the definition in order to provide meaning and to avoid ambiguity.

Montse Ballesteros Jul 23, 2010:

Maybe I'm wrong as I am not a native speaker of English but given the etymology of the term "pact", I do not think "pactist" would sound meaningless to the target reader of the text. Even if it is a new coined word, it is made up by "pact" (Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pactum, from neuter sing. past participle of pac sc , to agree) plus the suffix "ist", basically meaning "relating to or characterized by", which is a very common way to form adjectives in English. For instace, one can relate it to other adjectives such as "pacifist", "realist", "socialist", etc.

Berni Armstrong Jul 23, 2010:

Foreign Buzzwords Unless there is evidence that a word like this has recently been adopted in English, as a newly minted buzzword of foreign origin, I always think it better to use plain English and not introduce a term into a text that is at best puzzling and at worse meaningless.


BTW I would prefer "faith" to "religion" in your texts. I tend to think we understand by "religion" the big nine (Christiantiy, Islam, Judaism, etc) and by "faith" we understand all the variations within the big nine (schisms, sects, cults, etc).

S Ben Price (asker) Jul 23, 2010:

My solution True, there are a lot of Google book hits. I still think it isn't word that is well-known, and is not at all self-explanatory, and it doesn't show up in any dictionary (including the OED). So to help to make it comprehensible to the reader I think I will put 'pactist' and then Berni's suggestion, or a very brief definition/description. Thanks, everyone!

Montse Ballesteros Jul 23, 2010:

pactist in English Ben, if you search "pactist" in Google books, you'll see there are also references to Puerto Rico, Sweden, Bengal, Castile, Colombia, etc. Don't you think "pactist nature/character/tradition/movement" could work here?

S Ben Price (asker) Jul 23, 2010:

Yes, I did look at tose two. And there is also a wiki entry for pactismo in castellano.

Andrew Langdon-Davies (X) Jul 23, 2010:

Have you checked out GREC or Viquipèdia? This is a very specific term; Berni's suggestion fits pretty well but may be too generic.

S Ben Price (asker) Jul 22, 2010:

pactist en anglés.

Montse Ballesteros Jul 22, 2010:

A què et refereixes exactament amb aquesta frase? I can't find any reference to this that doesn't reference Catalonia. Al terme "pactist" en anglès o "caràcter pactista" en català?