Power Cut vs Power Outage

Question

"Power Cut" is short and to the point.I am always surprised that American English uses the longer "Power Outage"Even the BBC World Service used "Outage" this time.My Collins dictionary is unhelpful - merely stating the meaning.Is this covered in a FAQ list somewhere?Any guidance welcome!

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[nq:1]"Power Cut" is short and to the point. I am always surprised that American English uses the longer "Power Outage" ... Collins dictionary is unhelpful - merely stating the meaning. Is this covered in a FAQ list somewhere? Any guidance welcome![/nq]
The first is deliberate, the second is not.

Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
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In response to:
[nq:2]"Power Cut" is short and to the point. I am ... Outage" Even the BBC World Service used "Outage" this time.[/nq]
[nq:1]The first is deliberate, the second is not.[/nq]
I would agree. There is also "power failure"; that's the term I first learned as a child, possibly before my parents had Leftpondianized their vocabulary.
The most common Leftpondian term today seems to be "blackout". This one always bothers me a bit, because I tend to think of its Second World War meaning: the deliberate reduction of light visible outdoors, to make it harder for enemy bombers to navigate. However, the set phrase "Great Northeast Blackout" has helped me get used to it.

Mark Brader > "It's not in the slightest bit harder to write Fortran Toronto > or Basic programs in C++ or Smalltalk than it is (Email Removed) > to write them in C or Pascal." Peter da Silva

My text in this article is in the public domain.

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[nq:1]"Power Cut" is short and to the point. I am always surprised that American English uses the longer "Power Outage"[/nq]
"Power cut" first came into use in postwar
Britain when there were serious shortages
of electricity, sometimes managed by
reducing voltage. I.e. Power Cut originally
meant any reduction in service, not only
reduction to zero (Power Outage.)
Power was the normal English usage in
the postwar years. What would nowadays
be called the Ministry of Energy was then
the Ministry of Fuel and Power.

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
dphillipson(at)trytel.com

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[nq:1]The most common Leftpondian term today seems to be "blackout". This one always bothers me a bit, because I tend ... harder for enemy bombers to navigate. However, the set phrase "Great Northeast Blackout" has helped me get used to it.[/nq]
Which we could term the "Great Northeast Black In" since the birth rate among Blacks surged nine months later, one of the newspapers I read confirmed yesterday.

Charles Riggs
For email, take the air out of aircom
and replace with eir

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[nq:1]"Power Cut" is short and to the point. I am always surprised that American English uses the longer "Power Outage" Even the BBC World Service used "Outage" this time.[/nq]
As others have pointed out in other threads, "cut", in the US, has the connoatation of "partial reduction" rather than "complete loss". An outage (whether power or something else, like telephone or cable television service) can be planned or unplanned. "Blackouts" are unplanned power outages. "Brownouts" are unplanned power reductions.
[nq:1]My Collins dictionary is unhelpful - merely stating the meaning.[/nq]
MWCD gives a historically prior definition as "a quantity or bulk of something lost in transportation or storage", though I'm not sure how you get from there to the later "failure or interruption in use or functioning", which led to "a period of interruption especially of electric current".
Etymologically, it would seem to be "the state of being out". During an outage, we speak of the power (phone, cable, whatever) being "out", and we typically notice it by the lights "going out". And lights are "out" even when we shut them off, probably stemming back to when light was provided by flame.

Evan Kirshenbaum + HP Laboratories >Sometimes I think the surest sign
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 >that intelligent life existsPalo Alto, CA 94304 >elsewhere in the universe is that

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On 20 Aug 2003 11:05:39 -0700, Evan Kirshenbaum

So the reason why we Brits don't have "outage" (unless as a recent import) is that we don't have this use of "out" either. Power is not in(?) or out, it's on or off. What has happened globally is a power-cut, but I'm more likely, if describing the current situation at my house, to say "the power is off" or, more probably "the electricity is off". If reporting the situation to those responsible for fixing it (who have just changed their name from "London Electricity" to the trendier, as well as more accurate, "London Energy") I would use one or other of those phrases.

Don Aitken

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[nq:2]Etymologically, it would seem to be "the state of being ... probably stemming back to when light was provided by flame.[/nq]
[nq:1]So the reason why we Brits don't have "outage" (unless as a recent import) is that we don't have this use of "out" either. Power is not in(?) or out,[/nq]
Never "in". It's just there, or "on". If it goes out, after a while it will come "back" (or "back on").
[nq:1]it's on or off. What has happened globally is a power-cut, but I'm more likely, if describing the current situation ... Electricity" to the trendier, as well as more accurate, "London Energy") I would use one or other of those phrases.[/nq]
Here, if you told someone that the "power is off", a likely reply would be "Have you tried turning it back on?" while the power being "out" means that you've determined that it's out of your control. "The lights went out" is somewhat similar, although it could mean that someone else turned them off.
On the other hand, the directive to children, "Lights out!" means that it's time for them to turn the lights (or flashlights) off. (In military parlance, "lights out" is, I believe, the time at which the lights in the barracks will be shut off automatically, which has more of the "out of control" notion.) And it's not current, but my grandfather used to "put out the lights" (or "turn out the lights", which is a bit more current) when he left the room.

"That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia..."

Evan Kirshenbaum + HP Laboratories >...as a mobile phone is analogous
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 >to a Q-Tip yeah, it's somethingPalo Alto, CA 94304 >you stick in your ear, but there

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Power Cut vs Power Outage

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