[Janice D. Soderling]

Now I've had me morning coffee and cleared me thoughts.

Thanks for more input, Michael, and welcome to the Sphere.

I have translated many financial statements, and I might accept the phrase "to grow revenues" with few or no qualms, as that implies a stewardship, a caretaking, an active and direct influence exerted on something already existing (in line with David's comment.) As in "During CEO Smith's five years in office, he concentrated on the North African market and grew cell phone revenue to an unprecedented level." (In analogy with "drove".)

Or "Using only the computer in one corner of his bedroom, a small businessman grew" (in the sense nutured) "his firm to a global enterprise in only seventeen months."

But to "grow a budget", when 1) only part of a budget has been expanded, and 2) that part receives a sudden increase (as when the anticipated tax income to budget 2011 is set to double that of the preceding year), rather than a measureable increase over time, distresses me. The latter, at least metaphorically, resembles "growth" but the former usage goes against my wooden-headed grain.

Securities grow in value, but I balk at, say, "When Mr. Jones was president of World Bank, he grew the interest rates (or the bank's debt)." A former President Anybody might influence financial trends which in turn influence the ups and downs of market values, but he does not "grow" them.

I can, however, see the propaganda value of using the term this way, as it implies that some person in power has/had sole accountability for a fiscal result. And possibly the unexpected (to some) use of the word in this way would hammer the point home. And possibly that is why the word was chosen.

To bamboozle.

[Maryann Corbett]

Janice, I speak as one who has to listen to discussions of legislative spending all the time. I am confident that nothing anybody says, anywhere, will reduce usage of "grew" as a transitive verb governing "budget" by members, staff, and media. It's useful, brief, understood by those who are using it, and exactly on point. We fuss in vain.

[Janice D. Soderling]

Thanks for weighing in on this, Maryann. I always listen up when you speak on matters lingual.

I realized quickly that I was fighting an uphill battle and should save the Subcommittee's gunpowder for some other skirmish.

Doesn't make me like it though. Grrr.

[Maryann Corbett]

I'm not crazy about it, either, Janice. But I look at it this way: other verbs have transitive and intransitive senses. "Boil" is one. Extending or transferring the meanings of a word is something we do a lot. And it always starts with what we call mistakes, quick though I often am to stomp them. I just think we should pick our fights.

About shifts and changes in meaning: How many of us are still using "nice" only to mean "careful" or "exact"? Or "fond" to mean "foolish" (as in Milton)?

[Janice D. Soderling]

I am not complaining about words changing. Of course they do. And one generation's carelessness is the next generation's common speech.

That said, I don't have to like it and I don't. But I waved my white flag long ago when I saw I was fighting a war that was already over.

As we often see in the crits of poems here, there is a wide variety of interpretations. So benchmarks are needed.

Before there is the usual rush to throw the usual rotten tomatoes at a perceived reactionary, I reassert that I am not against inventiveness. To be inventive often gives a competitive lingual edge. Growing the budget" might an example of that. It opens to window dressing of financial statements or reports, then it is picked up by the duller ones as meaningful, and then it becomes as a much of a cliche as "the bottom line" and "the end of the day" or "military advisors".

No one is quite sure what it means, and everyone is vaguely sure of its meaning and besides it wakes up the perusers of the financial section.

[Seree Zohar]

If you segue [musical term 'commonized' the last 8 or so years] into psychology and especially psychotherapy you'll find 'grow' mushroomimg like after rain these past 12 or so years especially along with their adapted friends boundaries and validate.