Utilize vs. Use

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, how you doing?

Hi.

Hey, who is this?

This is Josh from Pittsburgh.

Hello, Josh. What’s going on?

Well, I have a slight pet peeve, and I wanted to know if you guys could confirm it for me that I’m correct.

A slight pet peeve? Wait a second. I thought pet peeves were like the word unique. They weren’t gradable. They were either unique or not, or peeves or not.

I’m trying to be polite because…

Oh, okay.

I would say that pet peeve would probably not be high enough on the scale of annoyance for this word.

How about your pet T-Rex peeve?

That’s right.

It’s my big peeve.

Oh, your big peeve.

And this is a pet peeve free to a good home, huh?

Yes.

Okay.

It’s the word utilize.

Utilize.

It grates on me like fingers on blackboard.

It is a horrible, horrible word that’s overused.

And from what I understand, and I was always raised, that utilize means to use something other than what its intended purpose was for.

So you would utilize a dime to go unfasten a screw, but you would use a screwdriver.

But I spent 20 years in the military, and they just threw away the word use, and they use utilize all the time.

Actually, I guess they would utilize utilize all the time because they weren’t using it for the purpose in which it was intended.

Right.

Well, I know that I’ve railed against the word utilize myself because it’s overused.

You’ve scrutinized the word utilize a couple times yourself?

I’ve scrutinized utilize and people’s use of utilize and overutilization of utilize because I do think that it’s one of those great big styrofoam words that when you pick it up in business jargon, it’s really light and sort of useless.

It makes me uncomfortable too.

I wouldn’t come out completely against it, but I would say almost every time I hear it, it’s wrongly used, almost every single time.

Well, if I could, it seems like everybody who agrees with me tends to agree with me just because it’s a five-cent word for a one-cent purpose.

But my argument is that it’s actually the wrong word.

I agree with you there.

I’m looking at Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, and they make a distinction like that too.

They say that utilize means to turn to practical use or account.

For example, in the passage, women who want to work at jobs that utilize their full potential, that means something a little bit different from use, doesn’t it?

Well, I think so.

I think so too.

I think so, too.

So I guess what I’m saying is there is a place for utilized, but it’s a much more specific meaning than what people have generalized it to mean.

And that’s what you’re saying, too, right, Josh?

Yes, it is.

That’s exactly what I’m saying.

Because I’m about ready to start a website and a national campaign to stop the word used wrong.

Wait a second.

Peavers and ranchers on the Internet?

No.

Peaversandranchers.com?

I like it.

I like it.

All right. Well, thank you guys so much.

Thank you, Josh, for raising that excellent point.

Best of luck out there.

Oh, you too.

All right. Take care. Bye.

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