Utility, futility

Jeanne Yocum, public relations practitioner, suggests:

If a lowly PR person can be allowed in here: When/why did “utilize” become preferable to the simpler and…..errrr….highly useful “use?”

A pox on whoever started this nonsense.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 14th, 2004 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Wrongful usage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

One Response to “Utility, futility”

P. Gelman Says:
February 28th, 2004 at 9:56 am
If I recall right, in _A Sun Also Rises_, Jake Barnes and a friend talk about the word “utilize” on a fishing trip. I think (memory a little fuzzy) Jake says he likes Menkin but he uses the word “utilize” a little too much. The characters end up joking around, using the word “utilize” about the bottle they’re drinking, “utilize some of this”, glug glug.

Hatin' on the hackneyed

Banned for Life is devoted to those expressions so gratingly overused that they should be forever banned from the nation's news reports.

George Orwell put it best:

"Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print."

# # #

These are my most-loathed expressions:

" 'Tis the Season" at Christmas.
Campaign "war chests."
Downpours that "couldn't dampen the spirits" of all those upon whom the rain fell.
"Play in Peoria" in any story or headline relating to the central Illinois town of my birth.
"The good news is .... the bad news is...."

This site is about what not to write if you write news for a living. It's not about annoying expressions that crop up in everyday conversations.

If Katie Couric's saying it, please tell me about it. If it's your annoying brother-in-law, grit your teeth and be thankful half of all marriages end in divorce.

Banned for Life