You can utilize after all! But don’t, mostly.
There's nothing like self-righteous certitude to keep you from actually looking something up. But eventually I got curious, and it turns out there's a reason for the damn thing after all. A very tiny, very specific one. For most utilizers, it's no excuse.
Take a step back: What do you do when you "-ize" something? You transform it into something it wasn't. Bad guys in old Tom Clancy novels "weaponize" viruses - they turn them into weapons. Ron Popeil "monetizes" weird ideas that come to him in the shower - he turns them into money. What do you do when you "utilize" something?
You turn it into an util, of course. Or, for veterans of high school French, "un outil" - a tool. When you utilize something, it didn't start out as a tool, but you turned it into one. You make it useful in a way that is not part of its ordinary function. Eureka.
So:
I was going to use a screwdriver, but I couldn't find one so I utilized a butterknife instead.
The remote control was missing, so I utilized my shoe.
I'm ready to call this the ultimate exception that proves the rule. It applies so seldom that most uses of "utilize" are still wrong, and I get to remain a copy-editing curmudgeon.
Comments
I wish you had written this when I was in high school. You know how many times I have utilized it wrongishly? Thanks. This is insightful. How about toward vs. towards?
I know the proper use for the term, but I still cringe whenever I see or hear "utilize." It just sounds fake.
I love word nerds!
Leave a Comment