Is 'secondment' a word?

[Established 1984]

And should I use it in a CV cover letter?

I know there are plenty of people here that like to promote the correct use of the English language, so may be you could help me out.

Secondment has a definition in wikipedia as 'is the transfer of a person from their regular organization for temporary assignment elsewhere, to transfer an employee, official, or soldier temporarily to other duties.'

However it isn't in my basic copy of the OED or Collins online, so is it a 'valid' word that I should be using?

Sorry for starting such a boring topic on a Friday evenning but there is nobody else at home to ask.

[andy-xr]

It's a word

An American word, as is organization

[randomman]

Didn't know it was a yank word. I depends on how much better sounding the secondment was, if it was dishwasher with a 6 month secondment as senior dishwasher, I wouldn't bother. If it was Dishwasher with a 6 month secondment as MD of McDonald's, then I would

[flemke]

andy-xr said:

It's a word

An American word, as is organization

Yes, it can be legitimately used in English, although it's not American.

[zippy500]

When you get posted back to original job, is that a firstment?

[G'kar]

andy-xr said:

An American word, as is organization

No it isn't. In most cases 'z' is correct. It comes down to the latin or Greek root of the word in question.

[750turbo]

Established 1984 said:

Secondment has a definition in wikipedia as 'is the transfer of a person from their regular organization for temporary assignment elsewhere, to transfer an employee, official, or soldier temporarily to other duties.'

Go for it, we use it all the time, (even before we were taken over by an American company)