Utilize vs. Use

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Grant. This is Rebecca.

Hello, Rebecca. Where are you calling from?

From San Diego.

Oh, okay.

Okay. What can we do for you?

Well, I’ve been hearing a couple of words used that I thought, I understand why people might have words morph as they become used differently, but these ones seem like they’re being morphed without purpose.

So one is for the use of service instead of serve, when you’re talking about working with customers. So I’m servicing my customers as opposed to I’m serving my customers.

Oh, my.

Yeah, exactly.

I thought service is what you did to mares and cows.

Or in the oldest profession.

Yeah.

Right.

You’ve got to pay extra for that.

And use and utilize was another example that came to my head. So I thought, are we running into with serve the same thing that happened with use, where it gets expanded, but there’s really not a purpose for that?

What an interesting question and how well said.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I agree.

Yep.

Okay.

Thanks for calling.

Wait, I have another example.

You do?

I actually do.

Yesterday I heard on the news as they were talking about the transition of Mubarak, they used the word formulate to talk about making a plan as opposed to form a plan. And that seemed like another example of let’s expand the word. It makes it sound more important.

So we’ve got three sets of words where there’s a simple form that seems like it might be more appropriate than the complex form, and yet people tend to gravitate to the complex form.

That’s exactly right.

Yeah.

What do you think?

So let’s deal with these one at a time. Serve and service. There’s a difference, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, I think so. I mean, service is a male animal’s function in breeding.

What would you say?

Even outside of that, you service an automobile or a piece of broken machinery, and you serve a customer, and you can also serve food, right?

Yeah, yeah, and I’m sure that plenty of people say servicing customers, but I’m sorry. I’m just, I’m not going to go there.

It’s weird, isn’t it?

Yeah.

It is weird, Rebecca. I mean, we understand what they mean, and it’s only funny because we prefer to misunderstand just to have the joke in our pockets, right?

Oh, okay, I’ll grant you that.

But, Rebecca, don’t you think it comes to mind anyway?

I don’t know how many folks are as familiar with the terminology of husbandry as you and I are.

Well, that may be true.

Oh, it’s the farming life for me.

But, yeah, I’m with you. I think that’s just overdoing it a little bit. It sounds sort of puffed up, and to me, it telegraphs a little bit of insecurity and insensitivity to the fact that people like Rebecca and me are going to think of servicing in a totally different way.

Different picture in our heads.

Different picture in our heads.

Sorry, it just pops up.

Just to clarify here, you service machinery. You might service something that’s broken or service something that is mechanical, right? But you generally serve people.

I’m hearing a pattern here.

Yeah, you don’t really service people.

I agree.

Right?

Yeah.

Okay.

And so we get to use and utilize, and that’s more complex. And we’ve talked about this in the program before.

What’s the neat way of wrapping that up?

Well, we’ve talked before about how utilize can actually mean something more specific than use. Like if you utilize a screwdriver to open a can or something, you’re applying a different use to it from the use that you usually use it for.

So if I used a screwdriver to undo a screw, to loosen a screw, I’m actually using it because that’s what it was intended for. But if I utilize a screwdriver to open a paint can, it’s because I’ve used it for a different purpose, right?

And it goes back to the root of utilize, which comes from a word having to do with tool. So you’re making it into a tool for something else.

Okay.

And so that’s a great way to think about utilize. In most cases, use is going to be the word of choice.

Exactly.

Utilize is a little pompous, a little. People go to it because it seems important. It’s kind of a resume word or a cover letter word. And you feel like that’s the one you should use.

A cover letter word.

I like that.

Use is almost always going to be a better choice.

I like that.

Just think carefully about it.

So, Rebecca, I hope we’ve serviced you today.

No.

Maybe.

Perish the thought.

Is this what I’m hearing?

We pay a great deal of attention to our listeners.

We are very attentive hosts.

We’re here to serve this.

Yes, you guys are, and I very much appreciate it.

Hey, thanks a lot for calling.

Thanks, bye.

You’re welcome.

All right.

Bye-bye.

And then the third thing that she came up with, the third set of words, was formulate and form. And I think those don’t fit the pattern. I think they do have different purposes, right?

Formulate means to come up with a formula. And to form means to bring something into shape.

Right.

And so I don’t think that the formulate is the more exaggerated form of form.

No, I think it’s two different things.

It’s not the inkhorn version of form.

Yeah, I would say it’s two different things.

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