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".
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".