Is appropriacy a word? Do the British really use revise like we use review?
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: “Appropriacy” isn’t listed at all in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the biggest, baddest dictionary of all.
Yes, the third definition of the word “revise” in the OED seems to be how Americans would use review: “(a) To look or read carefully over, with a view to improving or correcting. (b) To go over again, to re-examine, in order to improve or amend; to condense by revision. (c) To go over (a subject already learnt) in preparation for an examination.”
These definitions emphasize the inspection, or reviewing as Americans would say, not the re-writing, as Americans would use “revise.” Definition 2 of “revise” in the American Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary says “(a) to make a new, amended, improved, or up-to-date version of (b) to provide with a new taxonomic arrangement” and definition 1.b. says, “b British : to study again : REVIEW.”