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This kind of thing drives me crazy. I've never understood the motivation behind it. The same goes for the use of the word "utilize", which in my experience, ser
by christophilus 9y ago
This kind of thing drives me crazy. I've never understood the motivation behind it. The same goes for the use of the word "utilize", which in my experience, serves no purpose other than to make the author sound like a poser.
- jameshart 9y agoThe motivation behind it is that this is where new words come from. Two words which start out with similar meaning can acquire nuance over time, which increases the subtlety and capability of the language. I don’t understand why people (often people who claim to love language and words) can be annoyed by the coinage of more words. On one level, sure, utilize, use, and even employ are synonyms - but there is a shade to ‘utilize’ that suggests more ‘extract utility from’. It’s there more strongly when used comparatively - there’s a difference between “How can we use Dave more?” And “How can we utilize Dave more?” But of course the distinction is completely absent in “This solution uses Golang and Mongo” Vs “This solution utilizes Golang and Mongo” And likewise there is a nuance of difference between an ‘ask’ and a ‘request’, or a ‘solution’ and a ‘solve’. Maybe you can’t hear it yet because these words are new and people are experimenting to find the nuance, but it will likely emerge.