Please revert

[mudskipper]

Always thought this was a bobism. But have had 3 emails from Brits in the last week with "Please revert" (as in respond) or "I will revert".

Have I misunderstood the meaning of the word?

[SimonMac]

Always thought this was a bobism. But have had 3 emails from Brits in the last week with "Please revert" (as in respond) or "I will revert".

Have I misunderstood the meaning of the word?

I alway's thought revert was to restore or put back?!

But then again taking for grammer advise from me is not a good idea

[mudskipper]

I alway's thought revert was to restore or put back?!

But then again taking for grammer advise from me is not a good idea

Indeedy - that's what I understood it to mean. Bobs commonly use revert for reply, but seems to have now entered common usage at ClientCo, which isn't particularly Bob heavy.

[SimonMac]

Indeedy - that's what I understood it to mean. Bobs commonly use revert for reply, but seems to have now entered common usage at ClientCo, which isn't particularly Bob heavy.

You mean I got one right

[suityou01]

Always thought this was a bobism. But have had 3 emails from Brits in the last week with "Please revert" (as in respond) or "I will revert".

Have I misunderstood the meaning of the word?

Embrace it and do the needful.

[MicrosoftBob]

Reading this today I thought, why not reply with "Sure, I’ll set my biological clock to regress evolutionarily to my original primitive hydrocarbon state at 1 p.m. today."

[craig1]

It's a manglementism. It's one of these daft things that make pointy haired bosses feel "intelligent".

[vetran]

revert
vb [rɪˈvɜːt] (intr; foll by to)
1. to go back to a former practice, condition, belief, etc. she reverted to her old wicked ways
2. to take up again or come back to a former topic
3. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Biology) Biology (of individuals, organs, etc.) to return to a more primitive, earlier, or simpler condition or type
4. (Law) Property law (of an estate or interest in land) to return to its former owner or his heirs when a grant, esp a grant for the lifetime of the grantee, comes to an end
revert to type to resume characteristics that were thought to have disappeared
n [ˈriːˌvɜːt]
(Christianity / Ecclesiastical Terms) a person who, having been converted, has returned to his former beliefs or Church
[from Latin revertere to return, from re- + vertere to turn]
reverter n
revertible adj
Usage: Since back is part of the meaning of revert, one should not say that someone reverts back to a certain type of behaviour
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

its a Bobism, but as usual the sheep start using it. Then in the fullness of time and at the end of the day it becomes part of our language.

[suityou01]

Reading this today I thought, why not reply with "Sure, I’ll set my biological clock to regress evolutionarily to my original primitive hydrocarbon state at 1 p.m. today."

The only one of those that irritates me is revert. All the others I find either amusing or charming.

The trick is not to assume the person with the bad grammar is charming. Or think "awww bless" and patronise them in the way you reply.

What a lot of people forget is that these are pretty shrewd individuals that have learned our language, which is from a completely different part of the world with a completely different alphabet, and then travelled here to be away from their families for extended periods.

Give em a break I say.

<Suity in I was an immigrant in a neighbouring country and that was enough of an eye opener mode />

[OwlHoot]

Always thought this was a bobism. But have had 3 emails from Brits in the last week with "Please revert" (as in respond) or "I will revert".

Have I misunderstood the meaning of the word?

I think this is an example of obsolete British bureaucratic colonial legalese/officialese that has stuck around in places such as India and Singapore from the days when they were part of the Empire.