responding back

[Ben Zimmer]

On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 12:42 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 11:03 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> > And these days (esp. in S. Asia) there's also "revert back"
>
> "These days"? "S. Asia"? "Also?"
>
> _Revert back_ is, IME, as old as I am and far more common. It's _reply
> back_ and _respond back_ that are new and strange to me. Of course,

Sorry, I meant "revert (back)" used in the same sense as
"respond/reply (back)". That does seem genuinely new (and concentrated
in S. Asian English, at least originally). The "On Language" reader
response that I linked to has more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06FOB-onlanguage-t.html

Follow-up here:

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2307/

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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