The computer program we use most often at work is a British program. It uses the term, "expiry" in its license, so one knows it's British, not US of American. How did the Brits come to use this term instead of "expiration?" The "tion" suffix sounds as if it came into English through Norman French, so why would we on the left side of the pond use the latter form whilst the right side doesn't?
Interesting. I didn't know of this difference until now. Of the half a dozen or so dictionaries I checked via OneLook only the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary makes a mention of the fact that expiry is used in the UK and expiration in the US.
Dictionary.com dates expiration to 1375-1425 and expiry to 1745-55. Presumably the older term travelled over with the Founding Fathers, but the newer term came into general use here without crossing the Atlantic. There are lots of similar cases; just one such is the use of fall for autumn.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I'm English and I don't like "expiry date" or "expiration". Why not just "expires" instead? Or "until"?
But that does have a different meaning, being a verb. You'd need to recast the sentence so as to read something like "...licence expires on 06 July 2007..." instead of "...expiry date of licence 06 July 2007...".
Not that this presents any special difficulty, of course.
Richard English
Posts: 8038 | Location: Partridge Green, West Sussex, UK
