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Affront to the English language lurks inside Ultratech earnings release |
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Oct 26, 2006 at 11:37 AM |
Being a guardian of the English language can be hard work, as any self-respecting writer, editor or school marm knows.
This might be especially true for those of us who protect and serve our native (or adopted) tongue one moment, and mangle its syntax and make up words the next.
The corporate world and their communications cadre have eroded our linguistic integrity with impunity. "Corpo-speak" has turned many meaningful words into mush (how much more "leveraging" can our poor "core competencies" take!). One prevalent corpo-speak evil is the transformation of perfectly serviceable nouns into verbs.
I found a new, egregious example of this unwelcome usage while reading Ultratech's latest quarterly results press release. Here's a partial quote from Art Zafiropoulo, the company's resident Olympian god, that lies hidden like a viper in the tall grass: "The company revenued [my emphasis] three LSA tools...."
Excuse me, Art, but revenue is most definitely NOT a verb! You can have revenues, even make revenues, you can recognize revenue or achieve revenue (or not), but you can't revenue! I also lay the blame at the doorstep of whichever agency or PR writer let Art get away with this affront. What's next? Will execs be saying their companies "incomed [sic] XX million dollars"?!
Revenue as (non)verb doesn't just roll off the tongue either. Its pronunciational proximity to the old expression revenuer (a U.S. government agent who went after hillbilly moonshiners back in the day) makes me chuckle when I imagine hearing Art say it.
In fact, I can't imagine him saying it.
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