Is this good usage?

Arnold Zwicky zwicky at STANFORD.EDU
Fri Feb 8 16:56:30 UTC 2013


On Feb 8, 2013, at 7:06 AM, Dan Nussbaum <yekkey at AOL.COM> wrote:
>
> Is this good usage? Can something be migrated?

from my causativization files:

from help@ alum.mit.edu (4/28/09) re alumni e-mail accounts:

  I am writing to let you know we will be migrating spam management to Brightmail for all alumni in the next few weeks.

OED3 (March 2002) has this specialized computer use:

  trans. To transfer (data, programs, etc.) from one environment to another.

with cites from 1983, 1989, 1994, and 2000.

In more general use:

  trans. To move or relocate (a person, object, custom, etc.). rare.

with cites from 1768-74, 1928, 1997, and 1998, from the Times of June 11 (“Documents from 1954 showed that 49 children had not been migrated because they were—in the language of the time—‘half-caste’.”).

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