I'm not so sure that 'quantum leap' is obviously misused. The word 'quantum' can be used of any measurable quantity--and this use far predates the physicists' adoption of the word for the smallest measurable quantity--and by this use, to call something a quantum x is like calling it a sizable x. Interestingly, we also typically hear 'ABC is a sizable x' to mean that ABC is a large x. Perhaps something like this explains how the phrase 'quantum leap' came to mean what it evidently does mean, despite the technical meaning of 'quantum' in physics.
Comments by eabrown
eabrown commented on the word quantum
I'm not so sure that 'quantum leap' is obviously misused. The word 'quantum' can be used of any measurable quantity--and this use far predates the physicists' adoption of the word for the smallest measurable quantity--and by this use, to call something a quantum x is like calling it a sizable x. Interestingly, we also typically hear 'ABC is a sizable x' to mean that ABC is a large x. Perhaps something like this explains how the phrase 'quantum leap' came to mean what it evidently does mean, despite the technical meaning of 'quantum' in physics.
November 26, 2009
eabrown commented on the word fanbole
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/joe_posnanski/09/29/mangini/index.html
November 14, 2009