When words go wild

I am not at risk of repeating myself: I am repeating myself.

To recap: I spent an uplifting, albeit short, break in the South Island high country, a region born of uplift as the Pacific and Indian tectonic plates meet and greet.

On my return I found more uplift in action. I had noticed the occasional official use of the word “uplift” with regard to funding; back in the office I spotted it on both the New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa and Pharmacy Today websites and wrote a short online post asking why a perfectly good word had been ambushed by health officials to be used in a context where it makes no real sense?

Why has “funding increase” been replaced by “funding uplift” as if some superhuman effort has gone into the change on the scale of seismic shift. A few years ago, that was the only place you would regularly find uplift in New Zealand; in relation to earthquakes.

Head to the dictionary and you will find the following definitions: to lift up, elevate, especially to cause a portion of the earth’s surface to rise above adjacent areas; to improve the spiritual, social, or intellectual condition of; or, as an intransitive verb, to rise.

Look for synonyms and you will find excite, exhilarate, improve, boost, brighten, cheer, elate, bring up, perk up

‘Funding uplift’ suggests some superhuman effort has gone into the change on the scale of seismic shift

Which brings me to the Budget, which will be presented after this editorial is filed. Traditionally, Budgets have been more about “boosting” than “uplifting” as speech writers harness the power of alliteration.

Given we have been warned it was to be a no-frills Budget, it’s unlikely to be uplifting in the traditional sense but let’s not rule out another possibility. A finance minister might be interested in how international “buy now, pay later” company Uplift helps one “make thoughtful purchases now and pay over time in bite-sized instalments”.

Upon further research, I find “uplift” used in relation to an increase in share prices and “annual price uplifts” mentioned in Ministry of Health documents as long ago as 2018. The Treasury website is extremely uplifting with 57 search results, including in Vote Health of years past

So it is my ignorance of financial vernacular that has fuelled my suspicions of language torture.

Funding can be uplifted if not always uplifting.

But I’m not the only one with suspicions. One reader provided another definition for uplift: “a brassiere to hold the breasts up”, so suggesting the use of the term was a metaphor for general practice going “tits up”.

Don’t you just love language?

Nevertheless, I’m dissatisfied with this rise of uplift. I prefer its association with excitement, elation and perkiness. Funding uplift suggests generosity which is not always present.

I’m left pondering if there is an opposite to “uplift”, might it be “downfall”?