Citations:fuzzword

Noun: "a term that is deliberately vague or euphemistic in meaning"

 * 1981 — Willaim Safire, On Language, Avon (1981), ISBN 9780380564576, page 104:
 * "Be advised," as the bureaucrats say (a written form of "Now hear this!" on a Navy squawk box), that we are losing some and winning some on the fuzzword front.
 * 1981 — Steven Sander Ross, "Jobs Reindustrialization Will Create for Engineers", Graduating Engineer, January 1981:
 * Reindustrialization is the first buzzword — or should we say fuzzword — of the '80s.
 * 1984 — Michael R. Gordon, "All or Nothing", National Journal, 14 April 1984:
 * In the often emotional arms control debate, there may be no more common fuzzword than "verification."
 * 1987 — Frank Mensel, "Competitiveness: 'Root Canal' Phase", Community, Technical, and Junior College Journal, Volume 58:
 * Competitiveness surely has become the most overworked word in the American vocabulary. So much so that Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ) has branded it the "fuzzword" and forbidden his staff to use it in intra-office communications.
 * 1995 — Tim Poor, "'Empowerment' proposals don't sway everybody", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 30 September 1995:
 * These days, the buzzword — actually it's more like a fuzzword — in urban policy is "empowerment," a concept endorsed by both President Bill Clinton and the new Republican majority in Congress.
 * 1997 — Timothy Brown & Patricia Sullivan, Setting Hearts on Fire: A Spirituality for Leaders, Alba House (1997), ISBN 9780818907715, page 15:
 * When used in a superficial way, it sounds like a positive concept, but used as a political "fuzzword" it becomes a euphemism or code expression for cutting people off, for shutting them out.
 * 1999 — Ray Ekpu, "The Smile Died", Newswatch, Volume 29:
 * Now the subsidy argument has abated and the new fuzzword is "deregulation," how to let the market determine the price based on a rendezvous between supply and demand.
 * 2000 — Larry L. Constantine, "Interfaces Diversified", in The Unified Process Construction Phase: Best Practices in Implementing the UP (by Scott W. Ambler & Larry L. Constantine), CMP Books (2000), ISBN 192962901X, page 148:
 * Diversity is not merely politically correct; it pays. It pays in teams, where it can contribute to a creative synergy and in the marketplace, where diversity has become yet another fuzzword for flacks and field reps to use in their pitches.