Going forward (was SCOTUS)

[Baker, John]

        Business jargon, I think.  I was pretty sure I heard and used it
before 2000, but couldn't say just when.   I did a few random searches
of news reports using the words "going forward," 20 reports per year for
selected years.  I found 0/20 instances of this use in 1985, 2/20 in
1990, 4/20 in 1995, and 12/20 in 2000.  So, at some point in the late
1990s, this became the dominant use of "going forward," at least in
printed news reports.

        The earliest I saw was from 12/20/1984, in the Los Angeles News
Record (via Westlaw):  "I see business as tough going forward for the
next several months."  But I didn't try too hard, since there are so
many examples of "going forward" with other meanings.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Randy Alexander
Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 12:12 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Going forward (was SCOTUS)

On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 1:49 AM, Pat O'Conner
<mailbox at grammarphobia.com>wrote:

> Going forward, please use BC-US--Supreme Court as the starting point
> for = the stories about the highest court."
>

I first heard "going forward", meaning "from now on" when I was working
for Lehman Bros in 2000, and was very surprised by it.  Has anyone
traced it?

--
Randy Alexander
Jilin City, China
My Manchu studies blog:
http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu

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