Sign up for The Media Today, CJR’s daily newsletter.
Would you tell a friend something like, “I’d really like to get into the burgeoning pot business”? Probably not, we’d bet. If you wanted to get into that business, you’d probably call it “flourishing,” “expanding,” or even “growing” (though that last could lead to misunderstandings about what you meant).
Yet nearly every month, more than a thousand “burgeonings” bloom in news articles across our land, referring to things just starting out, exploding, expanding, or otherwise getting bigger.
Our objection to “burgeon” has little to do with its definition; it has everything to do with its lack of use in everyday conversations. “Burgeon” is journalese, a word that we like to use in print even though our audience rarely says it aloud. It belongs with “decry,” “mull,” and other such words.
In its traditional sense, “burgeon” means “to put forth buds, shoots, etc.; sprout,” as Webster’s New World College Dictionary says. In other words, it’s a new thing that is growing, not something established. The pot business in Colorado can be said to be “burgeoning,” but Apple’s iPhone business is better described as “growing” or “flourishing,” because it’s been around for a while.
While it’s true that WNW also defines “burgeon” as “to grow or develop rapidly; expand; proliferate; flourish,” that definition was added only a few decades ago. And even though Garner’s Modern American Usage lists “burgeon” at Stage 4 of the five-stage Language-Change Index, meaning only “die-hard snoots” would object to its usage, even Garner’s says “the word preferably refers to growth at early stages, not to full-blown expansion.”
More important, it’s usually better to use words your audience might. So let “burgeon” die on the vine, and find a more useful word.
