Please help with understanding phrase
"cost hit to something"
The original sentence "Is there a cost hit to registering a new account for existing ones?"
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1Do you have a context?– user10893Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 22:32
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Yes. Is there a cost hit to registering a new account for existing ones?– zaletniyCommented Sep 20, 2012 at 22:35
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Where did you see this?– user10893Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 22:35
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It is just email :) Do you need whole email ;)– zaletniyCommented Sep 20, 2012 at 22:37
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@zaletniy: Maybe not the whole email, but never underestimate the value of providing context. For example, I can think of 5 different ways to use the word cost, and one dictionary lists 30 meanings for the word hit. Sometimes one short sentence isn't enough to unequivocally decipher a meaning of a few words. Moreover, it's often worth knowing where a sentence was found; if it was found on a blog somewhere, it might mean the blogger is a poor writer; if it's found in the journal Nature, that's less likely to be the case.– J.R.Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 23:29
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2 Answers
The term hit can mean a loss
to have to pay an unusual cost: The company recently took a hit to the tune of $4 million in health insurance costs.
The phrase cost hit does not appear to be a standard term, but it probably is being used to emphasize either a monetary loss or a loss of some other quantifiable value (points in a reputational tally, etc.).
The sense of the sentence appears to be
If I register a new account, will I be penalized monetarily [or lose something from some other value system] in a way I would not if I continued to use existing accounts?
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1@StoneyB: In some environments, there might be more than one way to take "a hit." (On the Stack Exchange, for example, I might ask: "Will I take a rep hit if I change my account name?") So, if there was more than one way that a user could be adversely affected by creating a new account, then "cost hit" might not be redundant.– J.R.Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 23:33
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@J.R.- I think StoneyB meant that just saying, "Is there a cost" is sufficient.– JimCommented Sep 21, 2012 at 1:39
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@Jim I don't disagee in most cases, but there might be alternative hits, such as causing a delay or a lesser quality of outcome as well as charging fees or losing points. Cost hit suggest that there will be an asset dimunition, not just a hit of inconvenience or other negative effect.– bibCommented Sep 21, 2012 at 1:56
*Hit can be used to express a negative impact to something, for example a performance hit means performance has decreased.
But in this case it sounds like redundant business jargon to me. A cost hit can be simply replaced by cost:
"Is there a cost to registering a new account for existing ones?"
Or perhaps:
"What does it cost for existing users to register a new account?"
