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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab

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To: Dayuhan who wrote (1396)	8/19/1998 12:29:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	of 4711

To me, the word utilize has a special niche of meaning. "put into use" is very close. For me, the criterion is a sense of degree. To what extent is a given resource utilized? That kinda thing. Never mind what the resource is used for. "Semiconductor foundry capacity is being less than 50% utilized." Used strikes me as a hint less informative here. But yes, 98% of the time the verb is - uhm, used - merely to score a coupla cheap syllables. As for the penny&spark plug question - "destroy" doesn't sing. "Utilize" taps into the rich vein of military English, which fields an impressive collection of esoteric euphemisms for kick the *** out of*. Somebody once sent me a wonderful list of Pentagon euphemese; pity I can't find it. I might have to deploy a reconnaissance in force into the disputed territories of my hard drive. My Completely Misappropriated Word du jour is "impact" used as a verb. Aside from the specialist medical term (colon, molar) and as a noun (meteoric impact) I feel with some passion that the word "affect" is a 100% drop-in replacement. For the noun (excluding specialist usage, and this most emphatically excludes HR personnel) "effect" is good. Don't get me started on "gender". :-)

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