"Putting the brakes on business babble", Seattle Times, June 10, 2004

Extract: Batko reserves a special place in the language dung heap for what she calls "-ize endings."

"Optimize. Maximize. Utilize. 'We need a way to utilize our resources here.' No, you just need a way to use your resources."

.... Sometimes we change words out of a desire to sound smart. Sometimes the new word reflects a nuance that the commonly used word can't capture.

Take "utilize" (please).

"Many might argue that 'utilize' and 'use' do have different meanings; they're used in a slightly different context," Denham says.




http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001952569_grammar10.html

Hi tang,
Proving that this is a never-ending struggle: your example has already been considered worthy of an entry in Eric Partridge's Usage and Abusage (first published by Hamish Hamilton, 1947) Penguin Books 1985.

...your example has already been considered worthy of an entry in Eric Partridge's...

...and deserves a YART call if ever one did!

Optimize. Maximize. Utilize.


All are legitimate words with correct usages and incorrect usages. Some usages may be correct, but are inflated or inappropriate. I'm not sure about the other two, but "utilize" is overused.

I would have put "utilize is overutilized," but that's just me.
-ron obviousize

I still say why say incentivize when we have the perfectly good incent?

And if you have a mentor who does that for you, are you in an incentuous relationship?

This incents(es) me!

. . . and I only have IZE for you!