The new "Prepone"
Kindly revert back to meIf the above statement didn't cause some angry neurons to pop, then you need to read this post. For the abuse (even if unintentional) of the word "revert" to mean "reply" is becoming endemic.
"Revert", as any self-respecting dictionary will tell you (or try a bouquet of dictionaries), primarily means "to return to a former habit, practice, belief, condition etc.". No secondary or tertiary meaning indicates its use as "reply". So when you ask me to revert back to you, then me being (a) the escaped soul from your body, or (b) your Siamese twin whose snipped the connections or, (c) your slave-purchased-for-four-annas will make more sense than me writing you that response. You might as well use words like "rebound" or "retribute" instead.
The fact that this meme seems to possess a toxic potency only indicates that we often learn heavily from each other - we pick up words, gestures and ideas all the while. But many a time, we never question these acquisitions. Sometimes it's better to revert to an ignorant past. It can be argued that "prepone" filled a gap that presented itself, but do you think "revert" is a saviour of any sort? Kindly revert to me as soon as you can.
(And if you think this is merely an Indian phenomenon, then you would be mistaken. Look for a comment by "Neil" on this page.)
6 comments:
That's amazing observation.
Hmm.. Good one.
Yeah, I've been getting very annoyed by this one too. Perhaps the meme's been spreading easily because very few people knew the real meaning of 'revert', before they heard it used this way.
Zero: you're lucky to never have met a revert-prevert(sic) then!
atavistic aggravation I say! Yech to "prepone" and yech to "revert"; how about "revert back"? WTH! Textual substitution of "return back" for "revert" should give you nonsense ("revert back back") to ponder; damnation! Anyone who even wields the argument of evolving language right now deserves defenestration right after scorification of the family jewels.
Its more aggravating for software developers as this word is so dear to them every time there is a f$@#%ed up code check-in... How dare someone misuse this sacred word for personal use!
Well it could be highly possible this usage was born in the labyrinth of cubicles that dot our "urbia" (if this is a word)
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