As mentioned in my previous post, every so often during examining work, one comes across an odd phrase or expression that occurs too regularly for it to be dismissed as random or individual error. One such occurrence I have noticed today is the word revert being used where reply or respond would be the more orthodox (correct?) choice of word. This peculiar occurrence is in respect of emails where the writer signs off with a comment like, “please revert my email at your earliest convenience.”
At first I simply dismissed this as an error because it doesn’t actually make sense. However, as the frequency of occurrences increased throughout my pile of papers, I performed a quick Google search to see if this phenomenon has been identified and whether it has recently been declared an acceptable techno-related usage. I discovered that not only has it been observed and discussed, but it has also been around for quite a while (see the dates on the listing screen shot below).
What is also obvious from this screenshot is that three of the displayed hits unambiguously regard this use of revert as an error. Indeed, one website that I turned up claimed that revert is ‘quite possibly the most abused word in the electronic mail landscape‘ (Shah). In fact, that webpage might be useful reviewing for anybody who is going to sit an exam in which they may have cause to write an email.
For my part, I was relieved to read that this usage of revert is just an error so there was no need to revisit all the papers I had already marked this session. However, given the sheer frequency of this error, I suspect that this usage of the word revert will become acceptable in the near future and that we’ll see a new entry for it in English dictionaries – used as an informal and confusing synonym for reply or respond in emails. But until then, I will not be recognising it as appropriate.