Etym.From Old French levier and Latin levare 'to lift', repurposed in corporate English during the 1990s by consultants seeking a noun that implied advantage without specification (Keane, 2003).

A managerial invocation that implies operational effectiveness without measurable criteria; leverage obscures accountability by presenting vague scalability as a remedy.

'Leverage existing platforms to unlock synergies across the portfolio' - Q2 Strategy Memo, slide 3

Etym.from mid-20th-century aviation jargon, repurposed in early 21st-century venture discourse to quantify company survival in investor communications, see Sommers, Venture Language, 2011.

A single-number projection, expressed in months of funded operation, that reduces cash on hand and burn rate to a negotiable timeframe used to justify spending, hiring, or fundraising.

'We need to extend runway by 12 months to hit the growth inflection' - Q2 Board Deck, slide 12

Etym.from Late Latin diurnus, "day's course," reintroduced into managerial English in 2013 as 'a journey' by a consulting memo that sought to turn timelines into narratives, see Parker, Corporate Narratives 2015.

A rhetorical maneuver that converts concrete milestones into an indefinite narrative, thereby obscuring responsibility and postponing commitments.

'This will be a journey' - All-Hands, FY22 Roadmap

Etym.From French pivoter, 'to turn', popularized in early 2010s corporate literature as a neutral-sounding term for course correction, cited in Stanford Pitch Notes 2012.

A rhetorical maneuver that reframes a failed initiative as an intentional course correction to delay accountability and retain funding.

'We need to pivot toward higher-margin customers,' read the roadmap - Q3 Board Deck, slide 12

Etym.From poker, where it denotes compulsory betting amounts; migrated into corporate parlance circa 1990s as a sterner synonym for baseline requirements, see Kowalski 2008, Business Lexicon Review.

A rhetorical device that rebrands ordinary baseline requirements as nonnegotiable prerequisites, used to inflate modest needs and deter further scrutiny.

'This is table stakes for any vendor' - Q3 Board Deck, slide 47