Sunday, March 15, 2009

A word on words


I feel my bloom is fading ...


The following is a quote from the Associated Press concerning Obama's plan to help small business: "It's a huge step in the right direction," Giovanni Coratolo, director of Small Business Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Saturday. "In this economy, having the least amount of risk for banks will incentivize banks to lend to small businesses. A lot of small businesses will benefit from this."

Considering its source, I do not have a huge problem with the statement, but the word "incentivize" is terrible misuse of the English language, even though it is an acceptable word. It is an ugly word made up in some business college somewhere. "Motivate" sounds much better and will be understood by most people. Incentivize motivated me to write this.
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I am still feeling very poorly but making progress; my petals have not yet fallen off my bloom.
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For your viewing pleasure, The Smoking Gun's Mugshots of the Week!!! The dude on page three looks to be one of those guys you don't want to meet in a dark alley or along a lonely stretch of road. The woman on page four just wants mom to come and get her out of another mess. The woman on page five is very opinionated. The guy on page eight will probably someday be the director of Small Business Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and use words like "incentivize" and "utilize".
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Happy Sunday, y'all!
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is such word in my dictionary 'incentivize', as verb; and also a noun: incentive. As a foreigner I didn’t know of course that are ugly.

Very often different trendy words are ugly. In Polish is the same; I don’t like verb 'utylizować', but it is widely spread. So, what can I do…

Have a good new week, Ken. :-)

Anonymous said...

You have a great week, my friend! :-)))

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