Leverage

Leverage (pronounced lev-rij, lev-er-ij or lee-ver-ij)

(1) The action of a lever, a rigid bar that pivots about one point and that is used to move an object at a second point by a force applied at a third.

(2) The mechanical advantage or power gained by using a lever.  A force compounded by means of a lever rotating around a pivot.

(3) The power or ability to act or to influence people, events, decisions etc, based on position, personality, reputation etc (an applied to both institutions & individuals); sway.

(4) In finance, the use of a small initial investment, credit, or borrowed funds to gain a very high return in relation to one's investment, to control a much larger investment, or to reduce one's own liability for any loss (in some places known also as “gearing” and often used to express the “debt to equity” ratio).

(5) To use (a quality or advantage) to obtain a desired effect or result:

(6) To provide with leverage.

(7) To invest or arrange (invested funds) using leverage.

(8) To exert power or influence on:

1724: The construct was lever + -age.  Lever (a rigid piece which is capable of turning about one point, or axis (the fulcrum), and in which are two or more other points where forces are applied (used for transmitting and modifying force and motion)) was from the Middle English lever, levore & levour, from the Old French leveor & leveur (a lifter, lever (also Old French and French levier)), from the Latin levātor (a lifter), from levō (to raise).  The suffix -age was from the Middle English -age, from the Old French -age, from the Latin -āticum.  Cognates include the French -age, the Italian -aggio, the Portuguese -agem, the Spanish -aje & Romanian -aj.  It was used to form nouns (1) with the sense of collection or appurtenance, (2) indicating a process, action, or a result, (3) of a state or relationship, (4) indicating a place, (5) indicating a charge, toll, or fee, (6) indicating a rate & (7) of a unit of measure.  Leverage is a noun & verb, leverage is a noun, leveraged & leveraging are verbs and leverageable is an adjective; the noun plural is leverages.

The original meaning was to describe the action of a lever, the meaning “the power or force of a lever” emerging in 1827 while the figurative sense of an “advantage for accomplishing a purpose” dates from 1858.  The use in financial matters seems first to have appeared in writing in 1933 and was a creation of US English, in use as a verb by at least 1956.  The synonyms and related terms when describing the physics of the mechanical effect include mechanical advantage, strength, multiplier effect & force multiplier; in the figurative sense the usual alternatives are clout, influence & pull.  In the world of limited liability companies, leveraged financial arrangements (such as the “leveraged buyout”) are so common that when the mechanism is not used, the adjectives non-leveraged & unleveraged often appear.  The word is so embedded in the slang of those in business where leveraged transactions are common that as a transitive verb, it’s commonly used generally to suggest “to use; to exploit; to manipulate in order to take full advantage of someone or something.  The word has also entered the language of international relations (though used more often by commentators than diplomats) to describe what is known casually as “hostage diplomacy”.  The taking of hostages for ransom or some other purpose is not new and has probably been practiced since human societies first interacted and many cases over the centuries have been documented but historically, the tactic was once blatantly admitted, the gangsterism unconcealed.  Now, states which use hostages for leverage usually gloss things with the pretence of legality, the hostage convicted of something and given a sentence disproportionately long and while none seem yet to have been sufficiently cynical to have used a charge of "unspecified offences" that may yet happen.  The leverage sought tends to be political (the release of prisoners held by the hostage’s country of origin or some other concession) and the expert practitioners are the usual suspects: the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea)), the PRC (People’s Republic of China) and the Russian Federation.

Lever porn: 1972 Mercedes-Benz Unimog w1416.  The multiple levers were required because of the many drive and gearing combinations available.  In vehicles of this type, this may be close to peak-lever because it's become common to use electronic controls for activation but the attraction of mechanical levers is their robust reliability.  For those who remember the way things used to be done, the tactility is also compelling.

The surname Lever is English and of Norman origin; it was a nickname for a fleet-footed or timid person, from the Old French levre (hare), from the Latin lepus (genitive leporis) although it’s not impossible that at least in some instances, it was a metonymic occupational name for a hunter or trapper of hares.  In some regions it may also have been a topographic name for someone who lived in a place thickly grown with rushes, the link the Old English lǣfer (rush, reed, iris).  Great & Little Lever in Greater Manchester are (collectively) named with this word and if there was a habitational origin to any names it would have come from such placed.  Although rare in Germany, where Lever exists it is a descendent of the medieval personal names Lever (a variant of Liever and Levert, a variant of Lievert.  In Slovenia, it’s an altered form of Levar.

Leverage began its life meaning “to use a lever or some similar tool to gain a mechanical advantage, typically in the context of lifting or moving heavy objects”, the idea generally thus one of “effective force multiplication”.  From here it came variously to be used figuratively, notably sine the 1930s in structured financial transactions.  Financial Leverage is the use of various financial instruments or borrowed capital to increase the potential return of an investment, the attraction the magnification of profit; the risk in increase in potential losses.  Social leverage is not new but it’s assumed a new significance in the age of social media because the proliferation of access afforded by the platforms has removed the “gatekeeper” role the legacy media once fulfilled and a presence, once established in one context can be leveraged into a position in other, lucrative fields.  Fame itself seemed to be enough: Lindsay Lohan’s forays into music and fashion might seem related to her career in film but wouldn’t appear obviously to be linked with her more recent activities promoting cryptocurrency.  That doesn’t matter because notoriety (for better or worse) is enough; her choice of a certain dress to wear to one of her many court appearances saw the garment sell-out within hours.  Nor is this multi-directional leverage a creature only of pop culture, a number of Nobel laureates wryly observing that having won the prize for their accomplishments is a certain branch of science, they end up on the “commentator lists” of media organizations and are asked for their thoughts on things hardly related to their field.

In the matter of Grand Theft Auto (GTA5): Lindsay Lohan v Take-Two Interactive Software Inc et al, New York Court of Appeals (No 24, pp1-11, 29 March 2018)

It’s of course routine for leverage to be weaponized but sometimes, there’s the suggestion the leverage of others can be appropriated and misused, the essence of many an ambush marketing campaign.  Lindsay Lohan in 2014 sued a software house, alleging one of the characters in the game Grand Theft Auto V (GTA5) was based on a likeness of her and thus an invasion of her privacy: “an attempt to leverage her public profile to boost sales of the latest instalment of the series”.  The game’s producers responded, labelling the suit a “publicity stunt” and in private discussions they may also have called it a cunning one.  It took an unremarkable four years from filing for the case to reach New York’s highest appellate court where it was dismissed, six judges of the Court of Appeals finding the “actress/singer” in GTA5 merely resembled a “generic young woman” rather than anyone specific.  Concurring with the 2016 ruling of the New York County Supreme Court which, on appeal, also found for the game’s makers, the judges, as a point of law, accepted the claim a computer game’s character “could be construed a portrait”, which “could constitute an invasion of an individual’s privacy” but, on the facts of the case, the likeness was “not sufficiently strong”.  The “… artistic renderings are an indistinct, satirical representation of the style, look and persona of a modern, beach-going young woman... that is not recognizable as the plaintiff” the judgment read.  Ms Lohan’s lawyers did not seek leave to appeal.