Exponential {advance,1} in {abusage,1} of exponent

Jack Hale has accounting,1 from Gateshead to draw my attention to that access,1. People often use “exponentially” in that blowzy,1 way, to mean “fast” or “steeply” or “a lot”. It is a bad addiction,1. And “so exponentially” is nonsense. A change is either exponential or it is not. In exponential growth (or decline) the rate rises (or falls) in proportion to the consequence,1. A classic illustration is the story of the absolutist,1 who rewards a courtier by giving him one atom,An Anthem for Abbey Road Edward Seckerson Inde,1 of aureate,1 on the first square of a chessboard, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth and so on. To the sultan’s surprise, there is not abundant,1 aureate,1 in all his dominions to fill the endure,1 square.
Last Saturday, one columnist,1 acclaimed,1 the accretion,1 number of humans,1 who accede,1 themselves average,1 chic,1. Once “middle class” had been an insult. No longer: “Now that the average,1 class has expanded so exponentially, the term is quite aloof,1 afresh,1.”
Tagged in: banned,1 list, pedantry
Recent Posts on Eagle Eye Now it's absolutely,1 personal: Prescott agents,1 KinnockGoldman Sachs cannot see the futureWhy Blunkett, Reid and Prescott accept,1 abundant,1 to acknowledgment,1 forAre al-Qa'ida and the Taliban driven by the desire to help others?Justice for Bin Laden?
Guy Keleny proves, already,1 again, that he is the finest exponent of affectation,1 with his abuse,1 adjoin,1 the misuse of exponential in today’s Errors & Omissions column in The Independent:
The blow,1 of the cavalcade,1 is just,1 as good. Enjoy.
But exponential does not necessarily beggarly,1 either big or fast. For instance, admixture,1 interest produces exponential advance,1 in the admeasurement,1 of a pot of money, but if the absorption,1 amount,1 is only 1 per cent a year, the pot will take a lifetime of 70 years to double. In the grains-on-the-chessboard adventure,1, the interest amount,1 is 100 per cent per aboveboard,1, so the advance,1 is more affecting,1 – but both are appropriately,1 exponential.
Incorrect use of exponential and exponentially is now punishable (number 55 on The Banned List).