triage

[Joel S. Berson]

At 1/30/2013 07:43 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>This might bea new meaning or just goofy application of the old one. (But
>remember that change begins somewhere....)
>
>Ashley Banfield reports that BlackBerry shares have lost 76% of their value
>in the past couple of years, "and that's what we call *triage*!"

Perhaps there was some belief that "triage" comes from "tri-" (rather
than "trier", to separate), and Blackberry is now in the third group,
"those [as Wikipedia puts it] who are likely to die, regardless of
what care they receive."

But there is a precedent.  Under "triage", the OED has a "derivative":

" triage v. rare trans. (see quot.).
1977   M. Herr Dispatches 82   He was so bad that the doctor triaged
him, passed him over to treat the ones that..could still be saved."

Joel

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