change > change out

[James Smith]

Change can mean several things, including replace, but
also alter, revise, modify etc.  I understand
"change-out" to mean take an old, worn item and
replace it with a new but otherwise basically
identical item, i.e., change out an alternator, 126
first selector switches, a three-way electric light
switch, a power pole; no alteration of the receiving
environment is needed ...pull the old one out, put the
new one in, and voila.  This may or may not fit with
the use in the home makeover: "makeover" implies, to
me, modification, upgrading to something better and
upgrading everything in the immediate surroundings
while at it.  In the Odessa American article, the "126
first selector switches" were changed out but the
"inter-toll and toll transmission switches" required
modification.


--- "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> wrote:
> On-line newspaper search shows this "change out"
> from way back. I don't
> recall it even from the 1970's myself. Random
> examples:
>
> ----------
>
> _Odessa [TX] American_, 16 Feb. 1958: p. 5:
>
> [Improvements in telephone equipment]
>
> <<In order for the cutover to be made at Kermit, it
> required a change-out
> of 126 first selector switches and the modification
> of all inter-toll and
> toll transmission switches.>>
>
> ----------
>
> _Valley Morning Star_ [Harlingen TX], 21 Nov. 1948:
> "Fair Section", p. 6:
>
> <<Electrical service continues to plunge through
> this 69,000 volt circuit
> during the change-out of a broken pole by this CP&L
> Valley crew.>>
>
> ----------
>
> _Coshocton [OH] Tribune_, 24 Aug. 1967: p. 3(?):
>
> <<She said her husband was going to change out a
> three-way electric light
> switch that very afternoon.>>
>
> ----------
>
> At a glance, it seems like the noun "change-out" may
> predate the verb
> "change out".
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>

James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.



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