Incentivize

Two days ago our newspaper ran a story about an exciting new business that’s coming to our area. A local business owner was quoted saying that the news had “incentivized” her to make some changes she’d been putting off.

Sigh.

The word “motivated” would have worked quite nicely. “Incentivized” is business jargon – ordinary speech dressed up to sound more impressive. It happens a lot. I’ve been hearing “monetized” more frequently, and once in a while “Mirandize” shows up in the newspaper, meaning to read a suspect his or her rights.

How much better off we’d all be if we stuck to clear, simple everyday words!

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