a term from finance that is misused to indicate variance, as in “There shouldn’t be much beta on that product’s month-to-month sales”; this is subtly but significantly incorrect, as beta is technically a measure of covariance, showing how an asset’s price is expected to fluctuate in relation to a broader market index; using this term is a way to sound sophisticated in lieu of clarity, as is the case with much jargon re-purposed from one industry for use in a general business context, such as titrate, torqued, and optics