the.com/buzzword
A word that sounds like strategy but functions as camouflage for having none.
means A term — often technical-sounding or trendy — that gets used so often, and so loosely, that it signals importance more than it conveys actual meaning.
from A straightforward compound of "buzz" (the excited chatter or hum of talk) and "word," coined in the 20th century — originally academic slang for jargon students memorized to sound impressive on exams without necessarily understanding it. The "buzz" evokes the drone of a word repeated so often in meetings and memos that it becomes background noise, humming with implied significance while carrying less and less actual content.
- origin
- beekeepers once used it literally, for actual buzzing
- peak offense
- synergy, leverage, and circle back
- corporate tell
- confidence rises exactly as specificity falls
- survival trick
- sounds smart, means nothing, blocks follow-up questions