Lessons vs. Learnings

I find that when a new piece of jargon enters the nonprofit universe, it comes in a rush, not gradually. And so it was the first time I heard someone in a meeting use the word “learnings.” Initially, I thought the speaker had made a mistake, a sort of mental hiccup on the way to “lessons,” but then he used it again, and then again, like a toddler playing with a new Hot Wheel. And then it spread to others, and before long everyone in the meeting was finding an excuse to talk about their own learnings, and I was adding a new entry into my ever-growing Frost’s Mental Dictionary of Obnoxious and Self-regarding Nonprofit Words and Sayings.

In its defense, the word learnings lives in a place where one can easily make an argument for or against it. A cursory trip around the Internet tells me that dictionary.com doesn’t recognize it, and Google docs puts that little wavy line under it to tell me it’s a mistake. At the same time, I find that its usage isn’t necessarily modern, that it was actually common among English speakers between the 14th Century and the 18 Century, and even popped up again in the business world in the mid-20th Century.

Moreover, its construction–the making of a mass noun out of a verb–isn’t exactly rare, either. Where’s the uproar over the word “teachings,” as in, “the teachings of Buddha”?

I think learnings bothers me first because I don’t like it when people avoid simpler, clearer words. Lessons is right there–everyone knows what it means. But I also sense an affectation in learnings. Perhaps the speakers don’t feel as if the word lessons doesn’t properly convey the amount of effort that they put into their learning process, and that by using this term they are impressing upon me that they are a Learning Person™.

And I should be clear, I’m not always a fan of the word “learning” as a noun, either, even though it is widely-recognized as an actual word. I can certainly accept a usage such as “an institution of higher learning,” but when someone goes “my learning from this meeting”--Gahhh!

Whatever, I’ve clearly lost this battle. Learnings is everywhere, mocking me from podcasts, conference calls, public radio. I know deep in my heart that Merriam-Webster, in its zeal to add new words to the English language and thus justify the sale of new books and subscriptions–will certainly add learnings before long (see “rizz” and “jorts” and “signage”). My only hope is that learnings will eventually go out of fashion, as it apparently has done a few times before. Until then, fine, go ahead and use it. I know you mean lessons, even if you can’t bring yourself to just say it.  

I will continue to learn lessons, though. As old-fashioned as it might be.