outage

Etymology

It is formed from English out + -age,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} on the model of shortage, according to Barnhart and Etymonline.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the United States, the amount of something lost in transport, and in early use a charge to make up for that loss: 1851, in the debates of the Maryland Reform Convention.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was a commercial one, and it is now used mostly of liquid lost from a container by evaporation or leakage, as of oil or whiskey in storage.^[2][3] The sense now usual, a period when a machine or system, especially an electrical one, does not work, is recorded from 1895, at first and chiefly in American English.^[2][7][4] Barnhart dates this sense to 1903 and calls it American English,^[5] and Dictionary.com also marks the word as an Americanism.^[6] Merriam-Webster applies it both to the failure of a single device, such as a light bulb or a machine, and to an interruption of the power supply from a generating station.^[3]

Timeline

• 1851 – the amount of goods lost in transport or storage.^[2][3]
• 1895 – a period when an apparatus or system, especially an electrical one, is not working; a power cut.^[2][7] Barnhart dates it to 1903.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A period during which the supply of electricity or another service is cut off: The storm caused a two-day power outage across the valley.^[3][8][2][4]
2. A failure or stoppage of a machine or system: a network outage.^[3][8]
3. A quantity of goods or liquid lost in transport or storage.^[3][8][2]

Related words

• shortage
• out

Usage notes

In East Yorkshire dialect, outage or ootage meant the full particulars or the full extent of something, or its result.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)