lately people have been using the word wise after any other word, for example: money-wise, talent-wise, mechanically-wise. I hear just about any word with the ending being wise.
Could this be correct?
and if so how?
Could it be from Old English or Old German? In Danish, the -vis ending turns a noun, verb or adjective into an adverb, like "ly" in English. So, "letter" in Danish is "bogstav" and to follow something literally is to follow it "bogstavvis". "Unlucky" is "uheldig" and "unluckily" is "uheldigvis".
I see a lot of common roots and cognates between Danish and English, which indicate to my untrained little brain that they both branched off the older Germanic languages around the same time. "-vis" could have become "-wise" during the split.
Is there a similar thing in German? That should help confirm or debunk.
The OED has a lot to say on this usage of wise, with examples going way, way back. If you have access to a copy, look at the entry for "wise, n.(1)"
Can't reproduce the whole thing, but here's an excerpt:
"II. OE. wÃse manner, fashion, like the cognate forms in other Germanic languages (see the respective sections below), was used in various kinds of advb. expressions meaning ‘in such-and-such a manner, way, or respect', in which it was qualified by an adj. or a n. with or without a governing preposition."
from the definition, shall we say that it is ok to use the word as mentioned? Maybe it's become addicting, same as the word "like" when people of all ages would say it in between other words in a sentence.
I found another definition for the word: price-wise/time-wise etc.informal/ used for saying which feature of a situation you are referring to:
Time-wise we're not doing too badly.
Isn't "otherwise" the same sort of thing but so common that the hyphen has been dropped?
Emmett