"Revert"

Are answers to all questions available in books?




In my earlier article Annoying mistakes, I have shown the discussion of the usage of the word "revert".

The discussion has again appeared in The Star's MIND OUR ENGLISH section, and that has prompted me to write an e-mail to its editor.

Below is the editor's e-mail reply received by me:-

Quote

Fadzilah Amin answers your question(s):

The fact that big organisations in Malaysia have allowed their staff to use “revert” to mean “reply” and “revert to” to mean “reply to” or “get back to” for 50 years, has not changed the meaning of this word in the English language.

I have scoured several reputable dictionaries of British and American English, including the comprehensive 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, and nowhere is “revert” defined as “reply” or “revert to” defined as “reply to” or “get back to” in current or past usage.

“Revert” meaning “to come back to a subject” ,which you mentioned, is used, for example, in:

1) “To revert to what we were discussing before we were interrupted, why do you think Roger Federer is the greatest ever tennins player?”

It would be wrong to use it in the following way:

2) “The bank would would revert to you with an explanation and/or decision soon.”

“Revert to” as used in sentence 1) means “go back to (a former subject of discourse) (OED, meaning 6 a.) But unfortunately, in Malaysia, it is often used wrongly when someone wants to say “get back to/reply to (someone)”.

The following are two examples from the Internet of the word “revert” used correctly to mean “to go back to a former condition or practice”. The first example comes from the website of the Bank of England, while the second is from that of Bank Negara Malaysia:

The model assesses the contribution of investment, acquisitions, cash flows and market-to-book values to the determination of debt, and also the tendency of debt to revert to its optimum level.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/workingpapers/wp317.pdf

ATM services would continue to be provided for at least 5 continuous hours from 7.00 am to 12 noon. From 1 January 2000 onwards, the ATMs will revert to their normal operating hours from 7.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m.

http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=8&pg=14&ac=607

Unquote

In fact, my edited question and the said reply were published in MIND OUR ENGLISH under the sub-headline But ‘revert’ has been used a long time.

The answer may have discounted the following points raised (in 'Annoying mistakes'):-

1) The fact that the British people have used “revert” in correspondence calling for a response, and

2) urbandictionary.com (which has given the meanings/definitions as) write back, reply: in other words divert my attention back to you. Indian English - (as) I will revert to you in due course. (sign-off for a business letter)

If you take answers with a grain of salt, you may learn more.
- Anonymous.