Describing how things change

The twenty-ninth entry is crescimento constante, the library gaining readers year after year without drama. The cognate is sitting right there, and it is the wrong word. In English « constant » has split in two, and neither half is what this entry wants. The first sense is unchanging in value: a constant temperature, a constant speed, and, at the foot of this same list, « at constant prices », where the whole point is that the figure is held still. The second sense is unceasing, and it carries a complaint inside it: « constant interruptions », « the constant noise from the road ». Put the two together and « constant growth » tells a reader either that the rate never varies, which is a claim about arithmetic, or that the growing will not stop, which sounds like a grievance. What constante says in Portuguese is regular, dependable, the same from one year to the next, and the English for that is « steady »: « steady growth », « a steady rise ». Keep « constant » for what is held fixed and « steady » for what keeps going at a sensible pace.