Leverage

[jack]

This words irks most people I know. Indeed, everyone will know that the title means I'm going to talk about the *word "leverage", instead of thinking I might have leverage on something.

First we had 'lever', a verb and noun. And then 'leverage', refering the the act of levering. And then 'leverage', the verb. When you have leverage, you're magnifying the effect of something, when used literally, your strength becoming more strength (at a cost of distance) to move something.

But it occurs to me, I think the verbs are always used

* To lever something you want to move
* To leverage something you have

Isn't it so? I lever this door open. I leverage my minute-but-real trade advantage.

So the new verb *does* have a niche outside of finance. Of course, *most* of the time it's used when 'use' would be just as well, since there isn't a clear trade off, you just mean "use most effectively", but in theory, it should have a specific meaning not covered by any other word.

Comments

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

That is, I was suggesting that making up *any* jargon can make you seem competant, not just using an existing jargon. In fact, making one up is better because no-one can disagree with what it means :)

OTOH, everyone ends up using management jargon when they deal with other people who do, and many of them are competant.

PS. And I think in *finance* 'leverage' is as technical as 'synergy' is in biology, so that's another exception, but not what we're talking about here.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Ohhh I see what you meant now. Yes.