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

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

You missed a perfectly good opportunity to use the words "synergy" and "utilise" there!

Of course, when I say "perfectly good", I mean "inasmuch as there is ever an excuse to use them, which should be approximately never"

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

I think people who make up these words have a horror of the word "use" which would do perfectly well instead. I suppose using a word that had only three letters and one syllable might imply that any idiot could work in marketing and management consultancy, whereas really it's only a job for a select few idiots.

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

Darned silly verb. I just use things.

Oh, I forgot the other day, so...

*long-distance nnnynngs your fuzzy top*

[angoel.livejournal.com]

'Leverage' is different from 'use', in that 'leverage' largely means 'use', but also carries the implication that what you are using is something that only you, or a few other people have.

Therefore, when you say 'We're going to leverage our expertise in realtime multimedia' rather than 'We're going to use our expertise in realtime multimedia', it is clear to the person that you're talking to that you believe this is a relatively unique selling point, and that it's uniqueness is exploitable.

This implication also allows 'leverage' to be applied to areas where 'use' cannot be. For example 'We need to get some leverage on Mr Black to close this deal', referring to blackmail material. But that's a whole different story.

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

I like leverage, if only because it annoys so many people :-) I don't care if it has a distinct experiential meaning from all other words; natural languages do other things besides conveying experiential meaning in maximally efficient ways.