Offensive Language

AD1184

Celestial
There is something I need to get off my chest.

In recent months I have become aware of an explosion in the use of the word leverage. It is in what I read, and it is in what I hear at work. I work in computing, and it would not surprise me to learn that this word's newfound popularity originated within that field. I read it a lot in articles in the industry press, and in business articles. I hear it at work, often used by managers (I work for a large corporation).

The trouble is, this modern usage is not correct. I looked in my printed dictionary from the 1990s and, sure enough, the word leverage is specifically a noun. That is, it is something you can have, but it is not something you can do. The modern way of using it is like this:

How To Leverage Strategic KPI's, Soft Assets And Technology To Drive Decisions In Family Offices
Dr M: Malaysia able to leverage 5G within next three years - Nation | The Star Online
Tutorial: How to Leverage IBM Watson Media's Latest Interactive Webcasting Features

leverage - Google Search

It grates on my nerves every time I hear it uttered. There is another, simpler, word that would do perfectly in its stead, and that is use. Or utilize, or employ, if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

It is similar to how times (a plural noun) has become a synonym of multiply (a verb) among people who sadly never learned any better, at least in this country. They have heard things like "six times seven equals forty-two" and come to the conclusion that "timesing" is something that six is doing to seven in this sentence. rather than that you take seven six times to get forty-two. So you hear these people saying, of a number, "times it by four".
 

Shadowprophet

Truthiness
You know, The modern computing age has brought accelerated learning, With all the information at one's fingertips, In the last twenty years the standard bar for common vocabulary increases.

Languages change over time they evolve.

Comparably These words are much more common than their ancestors that meant exactly the same thing in generations past.

ask demand, inquire, interrogate, question, request

awesome amazing, astounding, remarkable, splendid, tremendous

beautiful glamorous, gorgeous, ravishing, striking, stunning

dark dim, gloomy, murky, shadowy, shady

dirty dingy, filthy, grimy, grubby, soiled

eat chew, consume, devour, gobble, nibble

end close, completion, conclusion, finale, finish

fair impartial, just, objective, reasonable, unbiased

fall collapse, descend, drop, plummet, plunge

The list goes on, The thing to remember about communication is it evolves

At time skip 3:35 in this video, you can hear "Original old English" reenacted from the original Beouwolf



See? It sounds nothing at all like What we speak, It is, in fact, a completely different language
then what we speak, But, It is the original English.

It's just evolved that much generation after generation. And It will continue to do so, Five hundred years from now, We would have trouble understanding what people were trying to communicate with us Because their language would have continued to change and evolve over generations.

It pays to keep up with the newer word uses and whats actually being colloquially used or else one begins to sound lacking, We can meet that change with indifference as language evolves.
But then we all start sounding like our grandparents, You know like When we all used to go to the five and dime and flap to the Soda jerk about what's bangin at the scene, man.
 

pepe

Celestial
Offensive ?

People who push the envelope and keep a windows open while thinking outside the box I find pathetic and funny.

I work around I.T sometimes and to be honest, some of the stuff that upset that lot makes me wonder what sort of sheltered life they have led.

This reminds me of a guy who after I had changed a light fitting over his head complained openly " oh no I am getting one of my migranes " and called me over with his head in his hands and asked me to remove the fitting. " No, it has to be there for health and safety reasons" I said as I forced myself not to say what I was thinking. With that he stormed off to see his leader who sent him home to rest.

My denying him gave me a great sense of leverage, enough to prise him from his chair and send him out of my sight.
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
I work around I.T sometimes and to be honest, some of the stuff that upset that lot makes me wonder what sort of sheltered life they have led.

I did for years and yes, what a bunch of squalling babies. For every one competent admin there are 142 complete doorknobs. What's worse is IT Managers - hey have no actual skill but are steeped in the buzzwordology which often flows from them like water from the fountains at the Bellagio.

I used to sit in meetings and then laugh to myself because no matter how many people were in the room at the time often I was the only one who would push away from the table and then actually go do something. At times I'd get various quasi-technical types who wanted to palaver and they always used a glossy airline-magazine-speke language on me. I recall one night when an upgrade went south that my customer contact tried to put me on a conference call with more than 25 managers of various description while I was actively trying to troubleshoot and fix something. Because useless input shouted at me from a group of people at home on the phone with squalling babies and barking dogs actually helps my concentration. Not. I fixed the problem without their help.

Jesus, am I ranting? Is this PTSD? It's enough that language morphs over time. We don't need to artificially accelerate it with terms designed to only to flatter our own cleverness.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
It is similar to how times (a plural noun) has become a synonym of multiply (a verb) among people who sadly never learned any better, at least in this country. They have heard things like "six times seven equals forty-two" and come to the conclusion that "timesing" is something that six is doing to seven in this sentence. rather than that you take seven six times to get forty-two. So you hear these people saying, of a number, "times it by four".

I haven't heard the word 'leverage' used much personally, but its a bit disturbing to me the usage of 'times' in reference to multiplying...Six 'times' seven is forty-two, something I expect a teenager in middle grades would say, not an adult, whom I would expect to say it as: "six multiplied by seven is forty-two"...

...
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Leverage. Build Silos. Reach out or ping somebody. Go to your wheelhouse. Forklift some problem out of the way why don'tcha.
 

Shadowprophet

Truthiness
There is evolution, and then there is the reverse process due to people's inability to engage their brains. This thread is clearly about the latter.
well, see, communications suffer from something people term as an echo chamber. What you are experiencing is your own localized echo chamber, Someone has misused a word, And I agree it's misused in the examples you have displayed. But, This isn't something that can be prevented. This is lack of understanding, Someone, In your lexicon biome is completely ripping the modern English language a new butthole, and these word uses are spreading. But, This isn't something you have to worry about, Examples of this nature are blatantly incorrect uses of said words and they never spread further than localized groups, Eventually, Someone who isn't part of ground zero, The group that originated the misuse, Will hear it's usage and think it's stupid and simply not use it or even correct people who do.

Just as much as language evolves, People have the right to demand that others who communicate with them do so in a way that makes clear concise pontifications, If you allow someone who is missing words and definitions to carry on too long, Eventually you can't even communicate with them because 90 percent of what they are communicating is gibberish. This actually happens a lot to a lot of biomes Even here.

Just tell them, man, Look, We all went to college here, Speak English. Use words properly.

If you can't understand what someone is saying? whose really at fault? is it? The guy speaking gibberish? Or the guy that knew better and never addressed the problem? The world belongs to the educated. That's not philosophy. That's a fact. Don't let the Magoos of the world lead conversations. That will fix the issue.
 

kellyb

Adept
It's a verb in economics:
LEVERAGE | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary

"leverage verb [ T ]
US /ˈlev·ə·rɪdʒ, ˈli·və-/
borrowed money for investments, esp. in order to buy a large enoughpart of a business so that you can control it:

They can leverage a very small investment into millions of dollars."
---------------------
"to use something that you already have in order to achieve something new or better:

We can gain a market advantage by leveraging our network of partners."
Sounds like you're just allergic to this in general:

The Basics of Verbing Nouns

“We’re all set, but we need to table that topic for next time.” “You want me to calendar that meeting?” “Yes. Prioritize this topic and action the other two. We can fast-track this project for completion.” “But not without workshopping it. We’ve got to beef it up.” “There’s no way to task anyone with this without approval.”

Are you lost or does this conversation seem familiar to you? If it’s the latter, blame your colleagues or your friends, because you’ve been desensitized to verbing. You may be a verbing perpetrator as well. Verbing, or what grammarians refer to as denominalization, is the act of converting a noun into a verb. If you can’t find an existing verb to describe what you’re doing, just verbify the nearest noun!"
 

nivek

As Above So Below
people's inability to engage their brains.

This is a problem in the workplace, I've noticed, when it comes to problem solving, partially due to lack of retention of the knowledge and understanding given to the individual for him or her to fall back on...Often I have to remind the individual of something I taught which could solve the pressing issue before him, if he would only remember to remember that knowledge...It seems that so many people give more attention to their cell phones, ie. entertainment, than to more important aspects of their jobs which would improve their lot in work life...

...
 

pepe

Celestial
I did for years and yes, what a bunch of squalling babies. For every one competent admin there are 142 complete doorknobs. What's worse is IT Managers - hey have no actual skill but are steeped in the buzzwordology which often flows from them like water from the fountains at the Bellagio.

I used to sit in meetings and then laugh to myself because no matter how many people were in the room at the time often I was the only one who would push away from the table and then actually go do something. At times I'd get various quasi-technical types who wanted to palaver and they always used a glossy airline-magazine-speke language on me. I recall one night when an upgrade went south that my customer contact tried to put me on a conference call with more than 25 managers of various description while I was actively trying to troubleshoot and fix something. Because useless input shouted at me from a group of people at home on the phone with squalling babies and barking dogs actually helps my concentration. Not. I fixed the problem without their help.

Jesus, am I ranting? Is this PTSD? It's enough that language morphs over time. We don't need to artificially accelerate it with terms designed to only to flatter our own cleverness.

I feel for you having worked in that environment. I would not last a day as I would offend with facial expression alone. I understand it takes all sorts but I lack patients with those who copy this terminology like kids chasing fasion.

I have lost my filter over the years and worry that one day, it's all going to come out in public during a certain set of circumstances.

Then again i'm leaving London and possibly Britain, which I think will have a huge positive effect on my chatacter as I know who I am and I know what changed me.
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
I feel for you having worked in that environment. I would not last a day as I would offend with facial expression alone. I understand it takes all sorts but I lack patients with those who copy this terminology like kids chasing fasion.

I have lost my filter over the years and worry that one day, it's all going to come out in public during a certain set of circumstances.

Then again i'm leaving London and possibly Britain, which I think will have a huge positive effect on my chatacter as I know who I am and I know what changed me.

In a professional environment there are professional ways of calling out someone who gets stupid and/or lazy all over you. I am done with all that and have taken a job in quasi-retirement requires me to be friendly, pleasant, and never ever reveal what I am actually thinking. It ain't easy, but all those years at the Vulcan Science Academy are paying off. The IT buzzwords and absolute jabbertalk nonsense still makes my spleen swell when I hear it.

I've also found that no matter with who or in what situation I am dealing with that solid information can come from highly unlikely sources.* I thought I had already been aware of that, but along with my understanding of the bad breath and body odor of the nameless, faceless unwashed masses it's been polished to gleaming brilliance via the natural abrasiveness of constant, voluminous human contact.

*I was thinking of Joe Simonton when I wrote that. :)
 

CasualBystander

Celestial
There is something I need to get off my chest.

In recent months I have become aware of an explosion in the use of the word leverage. It is in what I read, and it is in what I hear at work. I work in computing, and it would not surprise me to learn that this word's newfound popularity originated within that field. I read it a lot in articles in the industry press, and in business articles. I hear it at work, often used by managers (I work for a large corporation).

The trouble is, this modern usage is not correct. I looked in my printed dictionary from the 1990s and, sure enough, the word leverage is specifically a noun. That is, it is something you can have, but it is not something you can do. The modern way of using it is like this:

How To Leverage Strategic KPI's, Soft Assets And Technology To Drive Decisions In Family Offices
Dr M: Malaysia able to leverage 5G within next three years - Nation | The Star Online
Tutorial: How to Leverage IBM Watson Media's Latest Interactive Webcasting Features

leverage - Google Search

It grates on my nerves every time I hear it uttered. There is another, simpler, word that would do perfectly in its stead, and that is use. Or utilize, or employ, if you're not into the whole brevity thing.

It is similar to how times (a plural noun) has become a synonym of multiply (a verb) among people who sadly never learned any better, at least in this country. They have heard things like "six times seven equals forty-two" and come to the conclusion that "timesing" is something that six is doing to seven in this sentence. rather than that you take seven six times to get forty-two. So you hear these people saying, of a number, "times it by four".

Umm... I'd understand your point if you had one.

"To Leverage" is a prepositional phrase consisting of a preposition "to" and a noun "leverage".

Grammar Bytes! :: The Prepositional Phrase

A prepositional phrase turns a noun, pronoun, gerund, or clause into an adverb or adjective.

Leveraged and Leveraging are verbs.
 

AD1184

Celestial
Umm... I'd understand your point if you had one.

"To Leverage" is a prepositional phrase consisting of a preposition "to" and a noun "leverage".

Grammar Bytes! :: The Prepositional Phrase

A prepositional phrase turns a noun, pronoun, gerund, or clause into an adverb or adjective.
The link is not relevant to this discussion, and what you say is not even correct, as 'to leverage' is a different part of speech to an adverb or adjective (it is a verb, like in your following examples). Talk about not having a point to make.
Leveraged and Leveraging are verbs.
Yes, latterly and when used by morons. I started a whole thread on this very subject.
 

CasualBystander

Celestial
The link is not relevant to this discussion, and what you say is not even correct, as 'to leverage' is a different part of speech to an adverb or adjective (it is a verb, like in your following examples). Talk about not having a point to make.

Yes, latterly and when used by morons. I started a whole thread on this very subject.

Gee let's look at your example:

How To Leverage Strategic KPI's, Soft Assets And Technology To Drive Decisions In Family Offices

How - adverb
To Leverage - prepositional phrase, modifies subject
Strategic KPI's, Soft Assets And Technology - subject (noun)
To Drive - Infinitive form of drive (verb)
Decisions - predicate (noun)
In family offices - prepositional phase, modifies predicate.

To - English Grammar Today - Cambridge Dictionary
 

AD1184

Celestial
Gee let's look at your example
You do not have a relevant point to make. 'To leverage' is a to-infinitive form of 'leverage' (verb). It makes no sense for leverage to be a noun here.

The problem with that headline is clearly that the person who wrote it is using the word leverage in place of the word use (in its verb form). If you do not see that is the case, or that there is anything wrong with that, then I can't help you. The existence of prepositional phrases is completely irrelevant to everything.
 
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pepe

Celestial
I have no idea what you are on about.

It's a twist on a word created by people who need to punch through with meaning. In other words the same old shit with new bells on.

Quick someone i'm being attacked by wordage. Oh yeah there is a one word remedy.

Bollocks. Fixes everything.
 
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