Multi-syllabic words when simple ones will suffice

I was reading the wizard's review on the Freemont and stumbled across this gem:

"I'm taking a stand against using multi-syllabic words when simple ones will suffice"

My biggest gripe in this category is "utilize". I am pretty convinced that in every possible context, "use" means the same as "utilize". My dad pointed this out to me a long time ago and I still have an involuntary physical reaction, something like a shudder, when I hear someone say "utilize" or "utilization".

Question 1: Does anyone have a context where utilize is more appropriate than use?

Question 2: Can anyone provide other examples for my amusement?

I would agree that they are pretty much interchangable, so why utilize (sorry, I couldn't resist) "utilize"? It seems to me that people might say "utilize" if they really needed what they are referring to. As if to put an emphasis on it. For example, if I were on Millionaire, and had a question where I had no clue as to the answer, I might say that I want to utilize a lifeline.

Quote: dwheatley

Question 1: Does anyone have a context where utilize is more appropriate than use?

Question 2: Can anyone provide other examples for my amusement?

Q1: The utility truck utilizes useful tools.

Q2: The way you spell "utility" is u.t.i.l.i.t.y.

There are a number of other multi-syllabic and essentially useless words, one of which is "essentially" but the most notable word with essentially no useful utility is "basically."

--Dorothy

I've got a different pet peeve. I'd rather see someone vary their words, like using 'use' and 'utilize,' rather than say 'use' over and over. Gets boring.

Quote: dwheatley

I was reading the wizard's review on the Freemont and stumbled across this gem:

"I'm taking a stand against using multi-syllabic words when simple ones will suffice"

My biggest gripe in this category is "utilize". I am pretty convinced that in every possible context, "use" means the same as "utilize". My dad pointed this out to me a long time ago and I still have an involuntary physical reaction, something like a shudder, when I hear someone say "utilize" or "utilization".

Question 1: Does anyone have a context where utilize is more appropriate than use?

Question 2: Can anyone provide other examples for my amusement?

Worrying about the manner of the message can twaddlize the meaning.

ESCHEW OBFUSCATION

Quote: wildqat

ESCHEW OBFUSCATION

OK, wildqat gets the award

"I'm taking a stand against using multi-syllabic words when simple ones will suffice"


Question 1: Does anyone have a context where utilize is more appropriate than use?





Yes, my song goes "I want to utilize my odds, so I can brutalize your wads"

OK?
lol

Quote: Wizard

I would agree that they are pretty much interchangable, so why utilize (sorry, I couldn't resist) "utilize"? It seems to me that people might say "utilize" if they really needed what they are referring to. As if to put an emphasis on it. For example, if I were on Millionaire, and had a question where I had no clue as to the answer, I might say that I want to utilize a lifeline.

One of the wonderful aspects of English is its immense vocabulary, which enables a user of the language to distinguish fine shades of meaning.

To "use" something is to employ it in some fashion to accomplish some goal. To "utilize" something is TO MAKE IT USEFUL. When Bear Grylls constructs a raft out of the debris he finds on a desert island, he UTILIZES the debris. When he takes out his knife to cut palm fronds to lash the debris together, he USES that knife.

Quote: DorothyGale

Q1: The utility truck utilizes useful tools.

Q2: The way you spell "utility" is u.t.i.l.i.t.y.

There are a number of other multi-syllabic and essentially useless words, one of which is "essentially" but the most notable word with essentially no useful utility is "basically."

--Dorothy

Not quite. "Basically", as it SHOULD be used, refers to a thing's reduction to its primary nature: "For all her pretensions, she was basically just a poor girl from Kansas." "Essentially" refers to essence, the fundamental nature of a thing: "Dorothy's essence was that she was a poor girl from Kansas."

The distinction is subtle and most people consider the words interchangeable. "Basically" has been kicked downstairs in the vernacular because so many people use it as a blank-space let-my-mind-catch-up-with-my-mouth placeholder (like "like").