Comments on: The overused word of the century

By: Jo Las Vegas, NV

Jo Las Vegas, NV — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:49:10 +0000

iconic or icon are now abused, give me a break

By: Blotto, Winston-Salem, N.C

Blotto, Winston-Salem, N.C — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:15:50 +0000

Let us slay “on a daily basis,” along with all the other “on a … basis” redundancies. “Daily” alone does the job neatly. Also “regularly,” “weekly,” “nightly,” monthly” …

By: Dr. Durhan San Diego CA

Dr. Durhan San Diego CA — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 07:53:35 +0000

overused and abused: vetted, make no mistake, and now the newer ones: crazy, spot on, price point.

By: rondo, coronado, ca

rondo, coronado, ca — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:19:50 +0000

The whole thing was bizarre. I mean….totally surreal.

exactly

He should have vetted the offer before he took it.

exactly

Talk about a paradigm shift.

exactly

But it may give him the traction and momentum he needs.

exactly

Regardless, his care and feeding style will have significant impact on productivity.

Exactly. Awesome.

By: Mary Lee, Escondido, CA

Mary Lee, Escondido, CA — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:38:44 +0000

Thank you, thank you! I have thought much the same thing for a long time.

By: Pamela Moldan Parrish FL

Pamela Moldan Parrish FL — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:24:22 +0000

AWESOME

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:49:33 +0000

How about the word “hero”. The least word you hear is “integrety” As in reference to one’s honesty.

By: emmacrostrategy

emmacrostrategy — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:36:29 +0000

The reason people overuse buzzwords:
• They want to win acceptance by going with the crowd
• They don’t think critically through to the meaning of what they are actually saying (where are Fowler and Copperud when you need them?)
• They reflect a desperate grab for attention in the era of business at the speed of thought (to quote Gates), which leads almost all commentary to exaggeration and makes commentators pundits and pundits fools
• Think for yourself!

By: Randall, Rocky Mount, NC

Randall, Rocky Mount, NC — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:34:07 +0000

I was hoping this article was listing surreal as the overused word, but thinking about it, maybe it will make the ‘overused word of the year’ report…

By: Tom Upton, Menlo Park

Tom Upton, Menlo Park — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:56:53 +0000

Gotta love words and people’s penchant for using them to shirk the work of being articulate and even, being thoughtful. The word “Passionate” is up next.

By: John, Raleigh NC

John, Raleigh NC — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:08:41 +0000

Hey! I just got an award for excellence in the field of quality from my company. Any thoughts on where I should put it to optimize its leverage?

By: Tom CPA, Lansing Michigan

Tom CPA, Lansing Michigan — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:14:08 +0000

This must be a young crowd.

The overused word of the millenium…

FEEDBACK!

Basically, like, you know.

By: Dave from Mich.

Dave from Mich. — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:11:43 +0000

We could use less leverage in biz-talk, and as the credit crunch shows, probably less leverage in financial deal-making, too.
A few other nominees:
— Arguably. Used when you want to make a wild claim without supporting evidence.
— Famously. Currently trendy in news-writing.
— Recalibrate. This seems to be appearing everywhere all of a sudden.

By: Leeroy "committed to excpetionally excellent quailty" Jenkins

Leeroy "committed to excpetionally excellent quailty" Jenkins — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:43:57 +0000

I once found my time being leveraged by my boss who felt compelled to force all of us tobrainstorm up a mission statement, which is generaly a collection of over-used buzzwords.

I got lucky on the third try on the Dilbert web site’s mission statement generator. (PDA and Wireless Web access FTW!) Technology leveraged, problem solved, meeting adjourned.

That thing had more over-used buzzwords in it than fleas on a camel.

By: Jack Hammond Canada

Jack Hammond Canada — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:48:49 +0000

With the passing of the the Late Great George Carlin, we are all doomed to suffer the onset of overworked and useless words and phrases.

R.I.P. George, I’ll miss your comments on such words as leverage etc.

By: The BRG, Portland, OR

The BRG, Portland, OR — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:03:38 +0000

I think a close second would have to be “absolutely”. Just when did everything and everyone get so certain, anyway?

By: Steve, Charleston, WV

Steve, Charleston, WV — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:46:42 +0000

Leverage is a decent word that is now overused; but at least it is still most often used correctly. “Excellence” and “quality”, however, are wonderful words that have been so misused to describe things that are neither excellent nor imbued with quality that they are now not truly useful for their original purpose.

“Impactful” is not even a real word, and is itself a bastardization of a misuse of a word used by people who want to hide the fact that they don’t know the difference between “effect” and “affect”.

I’m not nearly so irritated by a word that is overused correctly, as opposed to a word that is overused stupidly.

By: Paul, Madison WI

Paul, Madison WI — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:53:41 +0000

I’m with you. I read that Gardner book on leadership and I swear to god every fourth word of the marathon intro was iconoclastic. Needless to say I’ve been burned out on the word ever since.

By: Paul, Acton, MA

Paul, Acton, MA — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:28:04 +0000

Actually, we should consider the elevation of ‘actually’ to superword status in this list. Maybe I’m actually too old, but 25 years ago, when I actually started working full time we actually didn’t say ‘actually’ everytime we actually meant: ‘um’.

By: J Sawyer Madison, WI

J Sawyer Madison, WI — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:16:37 +0000

“Leverage” rhymes with “beverage” and drives us to drink. The trend in our corner offices is to misuse “solve” as a noun. “Good solve” is apparently so much faster to say than “Good solution” that it better leverages one’s time.

– http://www.sawyerspeaks.wordpress.com