“If you have any questions, please revert.”
“I will revert back to you later today.”

I will be the first to admit that my English leaves much to be desired, however I still believe it’s not so bad that I will fall into the trap of creating sentences that are just wrong by mangling words and applying new meanings that make no sense. I do have a tendency to use archaic phrasing and I definitely abuse the semi-colon when I juxtapose two ideas in a single sentence, but I still don’t redefine words based on popular use. This sort of thing really shouldn’t annoy me but it does. I guess democracy is alive and well in the world as the majority certainly rules when it comes to butchering language.

Before I go on, I should clarify that I’m not really a purist. I have no problem with adding words to the dictionary and using phrasing that sounds better even though, syntactically and semantically, it may be incorrect. I also don’t have a problem with applying new meanings to words as the language evolves. However the word “revert” is not one of these. This, in my opinion, is a case where the dictionary definition of the word has been warped and mangled to fit a context in which it doesn’t belong.

re·vert  
–verb (used without object)
1. to return to a former habit, practice, belief, condition, etc.: They reverted to the ways of their forefathers.
2. Law. to go back to or return to the former owner or to his or her heirs.
3. Biology. to return to an earlier or primitive type.
4. to go back in thought or discussion: He constantly reverted to his childhood.
–noun
5. a person or thing that reverts.
6. Law. a reversion.

In the two examples I gave at the start of the post revert is used to mean reply, or get back to, or come back to in a written conversation (most commonly email). I see emails with these phrases almost daily, most often coming from a native English speaker. Even if you were to accept the definition that revert somehow means reply, in the second example the word “back” becomes redundant and even more incorrect. I’ve always been under the impression that revert is used to modify a state, and the dictionary definition above appears to confirm my thoughts. It seems like definition #4 is the source of the confusion… except the example that follows the definition clarifies the meaning quite well.

I can’t be the only one that takes umbrage at the manner in which this word is used. How do these words even make their way into popular usage?