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Weasel Words

This section has now moved to the forum, No more contributions from readers will be posted on this page. If you have a word that's driving you crazy, register and facilitate closure going forwards.

If you disagree with someone's contribution (and we know email and immobilised have annoyed many of you) vent on the forum.

Productivity gains is where workers have to work longer hour for less money and produce more products/outcomes. Productivity gains has nothing to do with developing new technology or buying latest technology, machinery, hardware or even software, because industry cannot incur such costs to their bottom line. If industry did invest in such areas it would not achieve the mystical productivity gains.
Choice - that which allows one to have more than one option if they have the financial resourses above and beyond one hundred thousand dollars. [from R.Conlon]

Anytime soon 'If something is going to happen soon, it is imminent. But if it is likely to occur anytime that seems to me to be inexact. Anytime might mean soon but also might mean in a hundred years. So I declare "anytime soon" weasel wordish.' [from Peter Hair]

Situated pedagogy 'I think that this means that how you teach depends a bit on where you teach. ' (From Dr Catherine Scott)

Time Poor 'This from,Gardening Australia magazine, June 2005, "People these days are time poor..." The article was referring to selling your house and recommended that the garden was immaculate, for the potential purchaser's satisfaction.

As if our parents and grandparents were not short of time after; milking the cow, lighting the lamps, washing by hand, chopping the wood, tending the livestock, walking rather than riding, writing error-free letters in long hand and queueing for work.

Today's time poor must have such a dreadful rush; flicking a switch, ordering online, driving everywhere, relaxing at the cafe, turning on a machine, editing at leisure on the computer and enjoying the benefits of industrial awards that protect their working conditions.[from Max Shooter & Charlie Myres]

Geo immobilised ' This morning on ABC 702, during a discussion about nuclear energy, a Greens MP (Ian Cohen?) used the term "Geo Immobilised" when describing the disposal of nuclear waste. What I think he meant to say was they bury it!' [from Murray Whitlocke-Jones]

Poor Customer Service ' When used by a customer, this really means "you aren't giving me back my money even though I have used your product and discovered I don't like it."This is different from "good customer service", used by the merchant, who has busted a gut to get the right product in the customer's hands so the merchant doesn't have to hear customer complaints who discovered that he doesn't like the customer that he insisted on buying over the merchant's objections (only applies to independent retailers - sorry) [From Gerry Lewarne]

Outcome 'Heard on the ABC news. Describing the conclusion from a coronial inquest in regard to the death of a woman after an operation. It is concluded that the woman would have had a better outcome if something had been done sooner. She would have died later? Not as much? Or not at all? Presumably the latter.' [From Jeffrey McCubbery & Dr Chris Fyffe]

'The outcome was very, very unfortunate for the people involved.' Former Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock on ABC radio when asked about the Cornelia Rau and Vivian Alvarez cases.

Socialisation 'Used in the context of communicating information to people in order to get their feedback and/or approval. In my workplace, people say things like "we need to socialise this idea with the management team" - too bizarre. [from Vanessa Petterson]

How are you? I'm good: ' .In response to the question:"How are you" ? "I'm good"." Does anyone say "I'm bad" ? When someone says that he or she is good, the person could be asked if he or she has been bad recently, or if he or she is simply making a statement about his/her morals.' [from Paul Grant, Ontario]

For your convenience: 'Heard on a Virgin flight from Brisbane to Sydney: "for your convenience, the cabin will be pressurised". How about, "so you don't die, the cabin will be pressurised" or just, "the cabin will be pressurised"? [from Michael Hewitt]

Time budget: 'As in "Sorry I over extended my time budget this morning, it was my wifes birthday". No, he was late!
Price Point: 'The guy in my local bottle shop will often ask what price point I am looking at when choosing a wine. Somehow this is not as offensive as asking how much I want to spend on a bottle.' [from Steve Sutherland]

Sexy '. I'm fine with it in the right context. But since when could a mobile phone be described as sexy? Their appearance never sends my mind into a high-value sexual arousal state. Unless part of their functionality is to impact on sexual arousal state I cannot see how phones can be called sexy.' [from David Goodwin whoheard a radio ad on Nova in Melbourne this morning using "sexy mobile"]

Thoughtshower: 'Brainstorming is itself bad enough (and was apparently banned by the BBC because it was deemed offensive to those suffering from epilepsy), but 'Thoughtshower' is abominable. This site also explains a variant of brainstorming, in 'blamestorming' (where colleagues publicly denounce one another).
Dormantising - a term used by the Woolwich Building Society in the UK to describe how it closed customers' underutilised accounts without their knowledge.
Ovenable - a label invented for frozen food packaging by UK retailers such as Marks and Spencer.' From the January 2005 edition of Business Life , a British Airways inflight magazine, in a section entitled 'bizwords' [From David Burch]

Email: 'The word 'email' or its variants such as 'e-mail' properly describes a system of communication electronically. It does not denote a message. So "I sent you an email" should more properly be "I sent you an email message." One sees this misuse very frequently in business correspondence and informal discussions. Its use reveals lazy thinking on the part of its users.
Presently: The word 'presently' means soon to come, in the near future, and so on. Many people confuse it with 'currently.' So "We are presently in Australia" should more properly be "We are currently in Australia." This misuse is often seen not only in everyday conversation but also in business correspondence. Again, its improper use indicates lazy thinking.' [from William Bezanson]

Resonate- 'We need to make this concept resonate with the staff' instead of just letting them understand it.
Gain Traction - "We need to make this concept gain traction with the staff" same as above only we actually want the staff to think about it for a while.
Company-centric - "We understand that this matter is company-centric but we would appreciate it if you complied" translation - we have thought up an arduous task that we want all employees to perform but we don't expect anyone outside the organisation to do so because it's stupid.
Paradigm Shift - " If we can affect a paradigm shift at the grass roots level this roll out will be optimised" Translation - we want to stop people doing things they as they have in the past and make them add extra tasks in order to get something new working.[From Andrew Cox]

Oversight: 'A senior Victorian policeman commenting on the latest shooting seriously intoned that an investigation would be "oversighted by the coroner". This is a very clunky usage!' [From Rosemary Swift] and from Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words etc:

'There's a somebody I'm longing to see,
I hope that he turns out to be,
Someone who'll oversight me.'

Reject: As in 'Prime Minister John Howard today rejected claims that Australia joined the invasion of Iraq based on false assumptions.' From Dennis T who suggests this as a weasel word because of: ''the use of the word reject by politicians and others seeking to quell criticism. It may well be true to its dictionary definition (i.e. "put aside or send back as not accepted, practised, believed, chosen, used, complied with etc") but the use of the word by a skilled practitioner has the effect of clouding understanding, and diminishing both transparency of decision-making and accountability of decision-makers. It implies that considerable thought has taken place before a particular matter or person is rejected and it has a degree of finality. It also shifts emphasis toward perceptions about the seeming inadequacy of the rejected argument or even the credibility of the person raising the argument - rather than spelling out the basis for the rejection.'
Visit our FORUM to discuss this further.

.Dialogue 'Last night (Tues April 20) on SBS's Insight program, Treasurer Peter Costello drove me mad when stating he wanted to 'create a dialogue' or 'enter into a dialogue' with 'the Australian people'. What happened to the word 'talk'? [From Michelle Prak]

Killer application: a winning application that will supposedly kill the opposition.
Self regulation: do what you like if you can get away with it.
Marginalisation: put aside
Win-win situation: oh yes! or pull the other leg!
In this day and age: now
Must have: something you don't have and still don't need
[From Jo & Garth Jenkinson]

Fenestration 'I can sum up best what you are describing [on the site] in that immortal word used by town planners everywhere and totally incomprehensible to everyone else - fenestration! Yes that's right - otherwise known as 'windows' to you and me.' [from Sally Williams]

Course-complete 'Recently while looking for information on a TAFE course, I was told that after I "course-complete" I would be eligible for the diploma. I assume they mean complete the course.' [from Paul Brice]

Re-queue 'Recently heard in an Australia Post branch: "don't bother to re-queue, just ...".' [from Dave Annetts].

Deplane:' I was recently on a trip to the USA and I was confused to find the airlines using the word Deplane. It seemed to mean exit, the airline hostess said over the loudspeaker - "We are waiting on Customs to provide us with authorisation to deplane".' [from Steve Booth]

With all due respect 'Read "you're an idiot". It's so old and ingrained that it appears to have been overlooked but it's definitely a big time weasel word/phrase. [from Philip Stott]

Transition out. 'Recently, where I work, there was a "spill and fill" of the executive management. My boss did not get his job.
When I asked, what would he do now, I was told that he would "stay in the office for a couple of weeks to allow him to "transition out"... wow ... cheers... keep up the good work'. [from Derek Lewis]

Harmonization '...discuss the future of substantive patent law harmonization.' [from Tony Fisk who says this is 'evocative of a feeling that all's right with the world' when it's really about 'forcing all parties into lockstep'.

Text speak 'A mobile phone function which helps "you reduce the number of messages sent", or so the line goes.' [from Tom Wilson]

Event Bigness Channel Ten promotion. [sent in by a contributor who wishes to remain anonymous. This has also been mentioned on our forum along with 'all new' and 'special time'.]

Detention Centre ' I want to nominate Detention Centre as a weasel word - its a Prison! And in business - negative growth - it's a loss. [from Imogen Boas]

Opinionnaire ' I just received an email from the university I am studying at with an attached "opinionnaire". A new word to me, but I presume that this is some kind of questionnaire that is seeking my opinions - undoubtedly an exciting new form of stakeholder consultation!' [from Ben Lawson]

Decanted 'We recently refurbished our office, and most staff were moved from different parts of the building into one central space. However at no stage was it referred to as "moving", "relocating" or even "shifting". We were "decanted". The temporary space you went to while waiting for your new desk was "the decanting room". This was at all times discussed with a straight face. [thanks to Sarah Monaghan]

Resource re-Balancing ' I understand that the term Resource re-Balancing is a term used by Telstra Human Resources Department in the late nineties and possibly later. My understanding of its meaning is You're Sacked or Retrenched either way you're out of a job.' [from Cris Cordeiro]

No longer ranged 'Shopfast, a Coles/Myer owned on-line supermarket company, is never out of stock of any item. If a particular item is unavailable it is described as ' no longer ranged' even if it becomes available a week later.' [from Richard Doyle]

Ramp up '“We ramped up the dose of pain medication to see if we can control her pain”. Meaning to increase. ' [From Carol Matthews, a transcriptionist 'trained to weasel out weaselwords in the interest of clarity and simplicity in the medical records'.] And now this from P Webb 'Ramp up' has been in use for many years to indicate not simply an increase but a sustained steady (usually linear) increase. Please leave it be.'

Efficiency gains 'Presumably supposed to make me feel better at having been made redundant!!' [from R. J. Scott]

Able to be ' A phrase in increasing use in all sorts of bizarre contexts. For example, in an article in one of our local papers last year, a city council spokesperson was quoted as saying something along the lines of "unfortunately, the potholes in the footpath were not able to be filled." I have frequently seen it used in contexts such as "the objectives outlined in our strategic plan were not able to be met in full" In most cases, it seems to be a mechanism for distancing the speaker from a failure or possible failure to perform--the potholes are not really "filling-challenged" (to coin a weasel phrase) as is implied by the council person, in fact the council failed to fill the potholes; the goals of the strategic plan were not met, etc.' [From Ross Alford]

Damaging energy exchange ' I think it means accident, although the report in which it was included was at pains to point out that "accident" was an inappropriate term for a "damaging energy exchange", and that the British Medical Association Journal had banned the use of the word accident in its articles.' [from Jane Smart]

Talk us through 'e.g. a journalist asking someone to "talk us through” his feelings. What’s wrong with “tell us about”, or better still “describe”? Isn’t “talk” normally an intransitive verb? To my mind its only legitimate use as a transitive verb is to “talk” suicidal people down from the window ledge, or when Lloyd Bridges in the air traffic control tower “talks” the heroic air hostess through the process of crash landing the stricken jumbo jet – the operative concept in each case being the use of talk to soothe as much as to inform.' [From Jeremy Gilling]

Upward bullying 'Staff picking on managers' [from Alasdair Baird]

Performance Manage Out 'Not happy with an employee? You don't sack, can, dismiss or fire them. You "performance manage them out of the enterprise".' [From Jamie Wodetzki]

A heads up '".... just thought I'd place a call to give you a heads up on what's been happening at the recent ...." etc. Why didn't said colleague simply say, ".... thought I'd call to let you know what's been happening at the recent ...." etc.' [From (A baleful) Rob Nethery]

To drill down [further]: 'It seems to have meant “to get more detailed information.”'

With the effluxion of time: 'Mainly used by very senior Immigration officials to mean “sometime, but we don’t know when.”'

Concrete and transparent' I always had trouble with the apparent contradiction. But perhaps, somewhere, transparent concrete exists.' [The above three are from Barry Stuart]

Aggressively pursued. 'Used to preface anything from cost reduction, asset reduction, performance ‘enhancement’ ad nauseum. I think it basically means that “I’m gunna do this and it’s really important and now you know it’s important because I’m gunna aggressively pursue it”, as opposed to, I’m actually just going to do it.[From Matthew Broad]

Vision 'Just lately the word that most gets up my sneck is 'vision'. This is abused by every town planner, architect and committee suit in the civilised world.' [From Jack Briggs]

Tease out 'It's used like "unpack", already cited by Arne Linquist to mean to decipher the meaning of something. It's worse than "deconstruction". We don't comprehend or analyse anymore. [From Elli Housden]

Customer 'The personnel handling paperwork and indemnity forms etc, at the Cole Clasic Ocean Swim at Manly had words "Customer Safety" printed boldly on their polo tops. Since when were swimmers known as customers, ...entrants, competitors or swimmers....but not customers!' [From Grant Dugan]

Going forward: 'Today, I had to endure an internal audit report, which contains recommendations, that started six sentences with "going forward," ended another four with it, and had the term in the middle of two other sentences. The horror!' [From Éibhear Ó hAnuain]

People smart 'As in "that John down in Property, he's people smart". I think it means "smart like a person". What extra does it say about someone to describe them as having the attributes of a human?' [From Andrew Allan] ' I believe that describing Joe as "People Smart" means he has quite advanced social skills. In other words he may or may not be good at anything or really know anything e.g. "book smart" or "tech savvy", but he can talk people into anything. Closers and dealmakers are often well endowed with this kind of smartness.'[ From Zamani]

Add value - 'To agree with one's boss.'
Make a difference 'To do just enough to survive the next round of job cuts.' [From David Small]

Resource '1. Resource, meaning employee, staff member, or worker. 2. Under-resourced, meaning under-staffed.The only reason for these words seems to be dehumanisation. 'Shedding excess resources' sounds less upsetting than 'sacking people'. [From Kim Mason]

Capacity release 'Reduce staffing numbers'. [From Vince Baldwin]

Working Smarter 'Management like to drop [it] in every possible sentence, every possible context. No one is 100% sure where this came from (although judging by their skill level it was most likely lifted from a bargain basement 'How-to-Manage' guide).

Given the way that Working Smarter is most often used, it is assumed to mean:
1. Working Dumber, as in 'dumbing down' the service that you provide because:
a) Management don't understand it or
b) You no longer have enough staff, thanks to the usual job losses occuring in a restructure.
2. Introducing new levels of bureaucracy to complicate simple tasks. Usually put in place to detract from 1.b) above. [From an anonymous contributor]

Outsource ' It's a word that I hate with a passion because it is akin to 'downsize'. It conceals.' [From Ian Lyall.]

Discussants 'Just had notification of a conference to be held later this year during which the panel sessions will involve panel members and discussants.' [From Steven Smith]

Off airport landing' A reference to describe an aircraft crash landing. Much in the same tone as a “friendly fire”'. [From Ben Triefus] However, Benjamin Pischner has pointed out the following: 'My dad is a sailplane /soaring pilot and has taught me that this kind of landing is perfectly normal for sailplanes. That is, it is NOT necessarily a crash landing ... I know (the word) as "Außenlandung" in my language [German]'.

Interlock 'A favourite word among project mangers at IBM is "interlock", which I think means "talk to" or "coordinate with". As in: "I will interlock with my wife to see if I can come to dinner tomorrow night"'. [From Arne Lindquist]

Unpack As in: "We need to unpack the issue". I think this comes from an old computer term where a number would be stored in packed format internally and would have to be unpacked to be humanly readable.[From Arne Lindquist]

Actionable 'As in "actionable outcomes", "actionable predictions", etc. A word much loved by managers, "business gurus" and marketeers alike, presumably meaning something from which positive actions may result. Ironically this word is not new; for the last 400 years it has meant "subject or liable to an action at law"! Sadly this new usage has now so pervaded the language that the OED online has very recently included it is a draft addition.' [From Marc Peake]

Responsible 'If Rumsfield says the responsibility for Abu Graib lies 100% with him, why isn’t he in gaol?'

Corporate 'My pet peeve is the word Corporate when used as a noun to mean corporate customer.' [From Stephen Merrall]

Gifting 'As in, "I am gifting this to you." Quite popular in my business and used to let the recipient know that the branded garbage they’re taking home is some sort of big deal. I know it’s probably not a weasel word in the strictest sense, but it’s very popular with jargon junkies and a miserable use of the language nonetheless.[From Gus Paull]

Space e.g. we need to investigate what is happening in the curriculum space.
off-line - to discuss an issue outside of the meeting....'I think we should take that issue 'off-line'. [From Jenny Tetlow]

Granulated 'The problem needs to be granulated - ie broken down and examined. The issue needs a granulated study etc etc.' [From Rod Metcalfe]

Move on 'I think the public wants to move on.' John Howard, PM, preferring not to discuss children overboard in the leadup to the 2004 election. (ABC)[From Jeremy Press]

Visual integrity ' As in: visual integrity of the river landscape. Does this mean - if it looks like a river it must be a river? Or maybe it implies you should be able to trust how it looks? I'm still working this one out! [From Reb]

I'll bottom-line it. (From the businessman)
I'll diary it, that's diariable. (The businessman again)
The situation is roiling. (Initially an American) [From Roderick McMillan]

Matrix – a complex series of solid and [dotted] conjoined lines and text boxes previously referred to as an “organisation [sic] org chart”
Conjoined waste – recyclables, not rubbish – but not McDonalds wrappers (which is rubbish), glass, plastic, paper, small objects etc … previously referred to by way of “mixed” (A live example is available on Southbank walk Melbourn)
Dotted line – somebody in your work place , team or building who is permanently joined to, or is overpowered by somebody else by way of invisibleness “there’s a dotted line to him”
Road show – a travelling circus. A corporate travelling circus [thanks to Jeremy King]

Transit Lounge What the waiting room is now called in a rural hospital. [From David Whelan]

'No evening news bulletin is really complete without some sort of Forensic reference. Everybody these days is a Forensic something!' From Trish Collins

'management systems aka someone else to blame when things go wrong, abdicating management responsibility & accountability; to depersonalize all responsibility and allocate blame to all abstract nouns; a circular argument (must be continued) till toilet breaks.' From Sally

'B2B - business to business - describes computer business communications between two or more businesses. It does not describe telephone, fax, mail or meetings between businesses.
Metrics are now used to measure business performance, as in 'the metrics indicate that performance improved by....' From Gary Max

'Disconnect as a noun, an example might be the “disconnect” between plans and outcomes.' From Bob Galligan

'CIR = Client Infrastructure Representative = Technician.' From Dennis Perry

'Customer Studio: interviewing rooms at Commonwealth Bank' From Dr John Cohen

'Resource rebalanced: fired, sacked, restructured, retrenched etc.' From Karen Stephens

'At this time. As in: at this time's the season to be merry, tralalalala lalalala.' From Denis Walls

'Fresh: now used to replace - new, unused, first, additional, further, and a host of other words.' From Chris Fowler

'At the cutting edge of Capitalism' and 'Life Coach' From Anna Micallef

.

(Watson's Dictionary of Weasel Words, Contemporary Clichés, Cant & Management Jargon page 229).