The Penguin Guide to Plain English

Sometimes new specialized usages can misfire in the US as in the UK.

Failure o f sensitivity to accepted meanings can be unfortunate. A recent
development in US medical circles involves the w ord em ergent. Because
acutely sick patients are picked up from their homes or from the street
by the Emergency Services, and because they then go into hospital
through the Emergency Room, the habit has arisen o f calling such
patients em ergent patients. Here is a case w here innovation has failed
to recognize w hat the w ord em ergent means and m ust continue to
mean, that is, com ing into being or making an entry. Clearly the only
patient in a hospital w ho m ight justifiably be called em ergent w ould be
a new -born baby. It is obvious that not all American innovations are to
be encouraged. I am told by a correspondent that in programmes for the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts the conductor Sir George Solti
used to be said to be concertizing abroad.
W hen, during a stay in the US, my wife w ent into a shop and asked
for a reel o f cotton, the shopkeeper show ed his am usem ent by asking
Are you going fishing? She then learned that she should have asked for
a spool o f yarn. W hen she was involved in conversation w ith our hosts
on the subject o f the kitchen equipm ent in the apartment provided for
us, she happened to use the w ord toast-rack. The w ord was unknow n
to our hosts. Friends asked to explain it tended to make conjectures in
terms o f mediaeval torture. Such differences merely testify to slightly
different domestic habits in our respective countries. Try to locate an
electric fire in any American shop and you will almost certainly fail.
In some cases, w here w ords differ, the American w ord is gradually
driving out the English w ord. That is happening as diaper replaces
nappy, as truck replaces lorry, as rare (for a beefsteak) replaces
underdone and freight train begins to replace goods train. But plenty
o f interesting contrasting pairs of w ords remain. There is biscuit and
cookie, boot (of a car) and trunk, w indscreen and w indshield,
petrol and gas, a wage rise and a wage raise, and sweets and
candies.