triage

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtɹiː.ɑːʒ/ (UK); /tɹiˈɑʒ/, /ˈtɹi.ɑʒ/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French triage (“a picking out, sorting”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Old French trier “to pick, cull”,^[2][3][4][5] the source of try.^[3][4][5][6] Etymonline notes some apparent influence from Latin tria “three”, as in triage for the third and lowest grade of coffee beans.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of sorting goods according to quality (1727–41).^[3][4][7]

Semantic evolution

In the First World War the French term was adopted for sorting wounded soldiers into groups according to the severity of their injuries,^[3][4] and Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1918.^[5] It is now the main sense,^[4] applied to battlefields, disaster sites and hospital emergency rooms.^[2] By extension it means assigning priorities for any scarce resource (1974).^[7][2][5]

Timeline

• 1727–41 – sorting by quality.^[3][7]
• early 19th century – refuse picked out, as broken coffee beans.^[4]
• 1918 – the sorting of wounded soldiers.^[5][4]
• 1974 – prioritizing in general.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The sorting of injured or sick people according to the urgency of their need for treatment, as on a battlefield or in an emergency room.
2. The assignment of priorities for the use of scarce resources such as food or funds.

Verb

1. To sort or prioritize by triage.

Related words

• try

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press