Word Horror: Embrittlement

Okay. I can live with embrittlement. It is a technical word, and so far I've only seen it used in its technical context, by people discussing the problem of "hydrogen embrittlement" in alloys. An exact word to describe an exact process -- that's jargon doing what it's supposed to do.

Besides, English has failed to provide us with a word meaning to become brittle. Many words are close: harden, set, crisp, dry, and stiffen come to mind. Crack might be a candidate: it's what happens to something after it becomes brittle. Shatter, frizzle, and break are good words in that line too.

So, yeah, embrittlement isn't so bad. It's exact, and it does not pass over an existing word. But why couldn't jargon be snappier? Why couldn't it be "hydrogen cracking"?

And how long can it be before we start discussing "methodologies to arrest the embrittlementification process"?

****

On the word-horror watch list: massificate, a verb meaning to make available to the masses. Stop it! Stop it now!