We will revert...

[Ian Geary]

Morning all

(To get it out fo the way, I fully accept it might just be me.)

Anyway

My understanding is the verb "revert" means to go back to something used previously.

Eg I will revert to chocolate hob nobs to accompany my mid morning coffee because plain hob nobs are too crumbly and boring.


Yet I'm seeing legal correspondence now (as well as project correspondence) where it's routinely written that "we will revert" in reference to a future action.

Whereas what they should be saying (in my view) is they will reply later, or they will get back to us about it (in some vague unspecified time frame).


Did I just miss the memo on this?

Or can I still claim some high ground on this verb being misused.


Please revert to me if possible

[Glosphil]

I think they are using "revert" in the sense of "come back to" the subject. I agree it could be worded better.

[TheInternet]

All manner of people I previously respected are doing this.

[littleredrooster]

It's been used in Legalese since the dawn of time. I first questioned it at our first house move in the early 70s but it just seems to be one of the many quirks of the profession.

It is - as you said - to get back to someone, i.e. reply.

[shirt]

'please revert with the needful' is an email trope here in dubai. misuse of 'avail' is hot on its heels. e.g. 'avail our offer whilst stocks last'

both are malapropisms from the sub-continent.

[BertBert]

Revert as in consider and respond has around for many years, especially in the legal profession

[speedyman]

Heard all this rubbish coming out from Indian call centres. Scripted responses and so annoying.

[alscar]

BertBert said:

Revert as in consider and respond has around for many years, especially in the legal profession

This.

[Louis Balfour]

Ian Geary said:

Morning all

(To get it out fo the way, I fully accept it might just be me.)

Anyway

My understanding is the verb "revert" means to go back to something used previously.

Eg I will revert to chocolate hob nobs to accompany my mid morning coffee because plain hob nobs are too crumbly and boring.


Yet I'm seeing legal correspondence now (as well as project correspondence) where it's routinely written that "we will revert" in reference to a future action.

Whereas what they should be saying (in my view) is they will reply later, or they will get back to us about it (in some vague unspecified time frame).


Did I just miss the memo on this?

Or can I still claim some high ground on this verb being misused.


Please revert to me if possible

Insert “reply” wherever you see “revert” and all will become clear. It’s quite correct and routinely used.

[Granadier]

I'm with the OP in finding this misuse of 'revert' very irritating. I have nothing to do with the legal profession but I started seeing it in business/finance about 20 years ago, initially exclusively in stuff coming from colleagues in India, but it has since spread to become more common in London too. "Some accounts yet to revert" is commonly seen in notices about certain financial securities, meaning not all clients have got back to us yet. Annoying because they could just have easily written 'reply' or 'confirm', and leave 'revert' for what it actually means!

Edited by Granadier on Thursday 11th January 15:28

[charltjr]

Interesting, so is this an English as another language thing, where actually the use of revert is technically correct?

I mean, if I get something in from a service centre in India which says "Please revert" it has always raised a chuckle/groan/swear, but they are actually saying "Please consider this and reply"?

[Louis Balfour]

charltjr said:

Interesting, so is this an English as another language thing, where actually the use of revert is technically correct?

I mean, if I get something in from a service centre in India which says "Please revert" it has always raised a chuckle/groan/swear, but they are actually saying "Please consider this and reply"?

The etymology is:

Middle English, from Anglo-French revertir, from Latin revertere, transitive verb, "to turn back" & reverti, intransitive verb, "to return, come back," from re- + vertere, verti "to turn" *

In the context under discussion it simply means "go back to where the subject started", which was the party issuing the enquiry to which an answer was required.

• From Merriam Webster.

[TheInternet]

Granadier said:

Annoying because they could just have easily written 'reply' or 'confirm', and leave 'revert' for what it actually means!

Quite. In most cases it simply adds confusion and makes the author look like a tit when they could just use conventional language that is easy to comprehend. It's unnecessary and poor communication.

[Louis Balfour]

TheInternet said:

Granadier said:

Annoying because they could just have easily written 'reply' or 'confirm', and leave 'revert' for what it actually means!

Quite. In most cases it simply adds confusion and makes the author look like a tit when they could just use conventional language that is easy to comprehend. It's unnecessary and poor communication.

It's mostly used by lawyers, in whose interest it is to make things sound more complicated than they are. Some of the stuff from our solicitors requires Google translate almost.

[CraigyMc]

alscar said:

BertBert said:

Revert as in consider and respond has around for many years, especially in the legal profession

This.

It ("revert") is also 100% grammatically correct in both Indian and Irish English, meaning "to reply". You come across it - and things like it - a lot in modern multinational enterprises.

[shirt]

CraigyMc said:

You come across it - and things like it - a lot in modern multinational enterprises.

Noted

[jimmytheone]

presumably used by the same nobs that use "on point" and other fashionably annoying phrases

[gareth_r]

As others said, I first saw this in e-mails from colleagues (US software company) in India. I always wondered if, similar to many "Americanisms", it was something which had gone out of use in British business English, but had persisted in Indian English and, apparently, in legal language.

[Ian Geary]

Ok thanks people.

Good to know I'm not the only one thinking it, but I hadn't realised it was a long standing thing in the legal world.

Next week's topic: "reach out" (shudder)

[Louis Balfour]

Ian Geary said:

Ok thanks people.

Good to know I'm not the only one thinking it, but I hadn't realised it was a long standing thing in the legal world.

Next week's topic: "reach out" (shudder)

Now you're talking. Reach out? I'll bloody reach out alright, and wallop you right upside the ear.