Recent news reports called the power outage in the eastern U.S. a blackout. Now, as is pointed out in QT's column about grammar in the Chicago Sun Times, the two should not be used to describe the same occurance.
An outage, in this sense, is a power failure, an accidental loss of electical power. A blackout is a deliberate power interuption, such as the blackouts during WW II. Blackout is often used for power failure and, indeed, M-W includes this definition:
black.out
Date: 1913
"1 a : a turning off of the stage lighting to separate scenes in a play or end a play or skit; also : a skit that ends with a blackout b : a period of darkness enforced as a precaution against air raids c : a period of darkness (as in a city) caused by a failure of electrical power."
I see no reason why a power failure can't be called a blackout.
Tinman
[This message was edited by tinman on Fri Aug 22nd, 2003 at 0:33.]
I agree with tinman. Most power outages are a result of someone in the grid switching off the power on purpose. It is done to prevent damage to the network being caused, but a conscious decision is made to switch off. "Blackout", therefore, is a perfectly good use of the word in the circumstances.
[This message was edited by arnie on Fri Aug 22nd, 2003 at 10:13.]
Interesting question, Kalleh. I'd never thought of it.
In the energy trade the terms are not synonymous, according to the California Energy Commission. An outage "is temporary (minutes or hours) and affects a relatively small area (buildings or city blocks)." A blackout affects "a large geographical area for a significant period of time."
By these definitions, neither has anything to do with whether the loss of power is accidental or deliberate.
I also enjoyed learning that "outage" has the separate meaning of "the amount of something (as whiskey or oil) lost in storage or transportation." That was new to me.
The article I read said that "power outage" and "blackout" are different because the former means that all power is out, while the latter means only the lighting is out. This author definitely thought that the term for the recent problems on the east coast should have been "power outage", and not "blackout."
I first learnt about blackouts when I was very young and asked the purpose of the black sheeting which was kept near our windows. This was the "blackout curtaining" which was used to nesure that no light escaped from the windows to act a beacon to the Luftwaffe.
By the time I enquired, of course, the blitz was over and I can't actually remember ever seeing it used - although I do remember being carried down to the Anderson shelter at the bottom of the garden as the bombers droned over Maidstone on their way to London.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
What is slightly surprising to me that such a short outage (37 minutes I believe) should have had such long-term effects. It took several hours to clear the backlog, I understand.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
Can you use the same word to describe the process of revealing famous gay people? -------------------------------------- Only famous very dark-skinned people.
