"migrate", v.tr., a sort-of untracked sense (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

But who will migrate it to general usage?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Jonathan Lighter
> Sent: Friday, May 11, 2012 11:36 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "migrate", v.tr., a sort-of untracked sense
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> -
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "migrate", v.tr., a sort-of untracked sense
>
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> -
>
> If "migrate" is currently restricted to data applications, I prophesy
that
> it will soon be generalized.
>
> JL
>
> On Fri, May 11, 2012 at 11:38 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "migrate", v.tr., a sort-of untracked sense
> >
> >
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> ---
> >
> > To me an account is a form of data, and has been so since the
development
> > of ledger books.
> >
> > As for divestee, your account was divested, ie, sold, by your
original
> > bank, the divester. By my thinking, your account was a divestee.
> >
> > DanG
> >
> >
> > On Fri, May 11, 2012 at 11:20 AM, Laurence Horn
<laurence.horn at yale.edu
> > >wrote:
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > > Subject:      "migrate", v.tr., a sort-of untracked sense
> > >
> > >
> >
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> ---
> > >
> > > I just received a notice that my e-mail account is about to be
deleted, =
> > > and while I first took this to be one of the many many spam
warnings I =
> > > regularly receive along these lines, I realized this was an actual
one, =
> > > but no need to panic, because my account, as they reminded me,
"has been
> > =
> > > migrated" to a different sort of account as part of a mass
migration =
> > > event of this kind that we're undergoing.  I checked the OED entry
for =
> > > transitive "migrate", underlying such a plural, and the closest
was=20
> > >
> > >  7. Computing.
> > >  a. trans. To transfer (data, programs, etc.) from one environment
to =
> > > another.
> > >
> > > Neither the definition nor the cites include the possibility of an
=
> > > account being migrated, although it might be taken to fall under
this =
> > > definition.  Becoming a migrant in this way reminded me of an
event =
> > > several years ago when a bank merger (Fleet, formerly BankBoston,
being =
> > > swallowed up by Bank of America) resulted in a randomly selected
subset =
> > > of account holders being notified that our accounts were being =
> > > "divested" and would be transferred to another, unrelated bank.  =
> > > (Apparently B of A couldn't take in all of the suddenly unbanked =
> > > multitudes because this would have violated one of the few
anti-monopoly
> > =
> > > laws affecting the banking industry.)  We received notices in
which we =
> > > were referred to as "divestees", a word for which there is no
entry in =
> > > the OED and which doesn't follow by principles of semi-productive
=
> > > morphology from any of the listed meanings of transitive
"divest"--e.g.
> > > 5.  Econ. To sell off (a subsidiary company); to dispose of, cease
to =
> > > hold (an investment).
> > >
> > > --which would seem to predict that the bank rather than the
individual =
> > > account holder would be the divestee in this case.=20
> > >
> > > LH =20=
> > >
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> > >
> >
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>
>
> --
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