Idiots who destroy the language and who also happen to be in a position of being heard and trusted by a very great many.

Howard Cosell is probably my most loathed ignoramus whose only skill was bastardizing the language. Any damn fool who could move a ball fro point A to B was a PrOOOoooOOOoooOOOoooOOOooooooofessional.
God I hate that man.
A professional is a person who has sworn to some higher purpose like medicine law god etc.
It doesn't mean he is any damn good at anything or even particularly dedicated. It means nothing about income at all and absolutely nothing about dress or conduct. But once Cosell got his empty head around that poor friggin word, the nation seemed to want to utilize it for more bastardy.

Which brings me round to another word that is being bastardized by the famous and pitifully uneducated Joe Rogan. Utilize. He uses it every god dammed time he wants to say that a fighter used a technique in the manner in which it was intended. Which is not what the word utilize means at all. He uses it because he's an ignoramus and wants to sound smart, so he has latched onto a polysyllabic term and misuses it every time he utters it and he utters it rather too much. Utilize is used when one wants to connote a mis-application of a thing. Like picking up a micrometer and working it like a hammer. That is utilizing the micrometer. It might work and it might not do any damage, but the micrometer was not intended to be a hammer.

Now if one uses the micrometer to measure something then it is being used. Used is the invocation of a thing for it's intended purpose.

Cosell, Rogan and a host of others, why do ignoramuses survive?

One of my peeves is when a speaker uses "if you will" to end almost every sentence...


Josh

PS- did anyone notice that Larry said "pacifically" instead "specifically" on the last session? Haha I think he can say that though... Dechutes makes some gnarly beers!

I've never seen any indication that 'utilize' means anything different than 'use'.

Merriam Webster
Definition of UTILIZE

transitive verb
: to make use of : turn to practical use or account

dictionary.reference.com:
u·ti·lize   
[yoot-l-ahyz] Show IPA
–verb (used with object), -lized, -liz·ing.
to put to use; turn to profitable account:

I tried googling it in conjunction with 'misuse' and still couldn't find any reference.

I also am unable to find any reference to professional meaning sworn to some higher purpose. Merriam Webster uses the following examples of 'Professional':
Examples of PROFESSIONAL

The bathtub was installed by a professional.
The tournament is open to both amateurs and professionals.
a golfer who recently became a professional
She handled the situation like a professional.

I am unsurprised at the Webster failure.
One thing that often manages to evade public knowledge is that dictionaries are entirely non-authoritative.
American English language dictionaries are nothing more than the lexicographer's efforts to keep up with popular usage. That's it. They are not authoritative.
If you want the best you can get go to the OED.

Your examples of the misuse of the word are all too painfully true and common. Hell, I have even seen judges mis-using the word in their published opinions. Doesn't make it right. It merely illustrates a failure on the part of the education system and the result is that we are losing our language.

I can't understand why your internet search yielded nothing:
http://www.google.com/search?q=utilize+ ... =firefox-a

and
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=profession


During the 1960s there was a new thing happening. Young people by the droves were becoming the first person in their family's histories to complete and advanced degree ( then a BA or BS was an advanced degree). These young gods returned home wearing white shirts and took jobs at pay scales that dwarfed their father's and his dirty fingernails and blue work shirts. They were treated like gods too. Suddenly it was not good enough to be who you were. The new kids literally cast a pallor over America because while the parents often paid the college bills and launched their kids on their blazing careers the reflection was one that troubled those very people. They wanted their kids to do better than they did but when it happened it also hurt a little and people lost a little of the dignity they had.

So they started inventing all sorts of stupid crap to make themselves feel better: Secretaries were suddenly "administrative assistants." Janitors were "maintenance engineers." Pretty much every vocation that involved actually doing a thing with your hands got some kind of "engineer-ification" and anyone who wore business attire started calling themselves professional. I's not dressing professionally it is "business attire."

There are perfectly good words for the things people do to earn a living and the mis use of the word profession is among the worst of misapplications of language for it.
Trades are trades. IMO there is nothing more dignified than a trade. When a tradesman takes up his tools he brings order to an otherwise chaotic universe. Can't make such a blanket statement about any damn professionals.
Vocation is anything you do to earn a dollar
An Avocation is a thing you go to school to learn how to do like accounting and engineering.

A Priest is a professional and he can be a drunken child molester without two thin dimes to rub together. A lawyer is a professional and God knows I have too many colleagues whom I think are nothing but a blight on the profession for their intellectual sloth, cheapskate ways, and dishonest money grubbing deceitfulness.

That half retarded guy named Donk who sits on a beach every day in Australia scanning the water for signs of distress and when he sees it plunges headlong into the water to save lives is a professional even if he can't figure out which piece of bread gets the peanut butter and which the jelly.

"It's" is a contraction meaning "it is" or "it has". The word you meant is the possessive pronoun "its".

Oh, and from your second post:


I think you mean "an", not "and".

Do I win a "smartass" prize?

You win!





wayne.

I'm with Steve. That's what those words mean now. Languages change. There is no right or wrong about it--if "misuse" becomes prevalent enough, that is just a new use. In the end, as long as you are effectively and efficiently communicating your meaning, then what's the difference?

As a biologist, here is one that gets me every time (not that it pisses me off, just stands out).

Adapt vs. Acclimate

Adaptation is something that happens over time to species whereas acclimate is something that refers to the individual ... so someone does not adapt, they acclimate to their surroundings.