Learn English – Usage and origin of “prioritize”

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Prioritize is a term coined a few decades ago and its usage, according to the AHD, should be considered informal by now:

  • Like many verbs ending in -ize, prioritize has been tainted by association with corporate and bureaucratic jargon. Even though the word still does not sit well with some, it should be considered standard.(AHD)

According to Etymonline the term is quite recent:

  • 1972, apparently coined during the U.S. presidential contest that year, from root of priority + -ize.

while its root, priority, is much older:

  • late 14c., "state of being earlier," from Old French priorite (14c.), from Medieval Latin prioritatem (nominative prioritas) "fact or condition of being prior," from Latin prior (see prior (adj.)).

But earlier usage examples actually suggest that the term was coined and used before 1972:

The department shall, in consultation with the department of health, evaluate existing site evaluation systems and shall develop a system to select and prioritize sites for remedial action.From Warren's Weed on the New York Law of Real Property 1950.

… localities with the expense of school building construction, it may exercise its discretion in weighing and applying specified factors applicable to requests for state education funding in order to prioritize such requests. From American Jurisprudence: A Modern Comprehensive Text Statement of American Law, 1962.

Questions:

Is now "prioritize" a standard verb, commonly used outside beaurocratic contexts as AHD suggests?

When and where (AmE or BrE) was the term actually coined?

Best Answer

Daily Writing Tips has [reformatted]:

Some speakers hate to hear people use the word prioritize, complaining that “it’s a made-up word [aren't they all?] that shouldn’t be used.”

Prioritize is a fairly new word, coined in the 1950s, and growing in popularity since the early 1960s. Speakers use it to mean:

  • to give priority to

  • to designate something as worthy of special attention

  • to arrange items to be dealt with in order of importance

  • to establish priorities

  • to establish priorities for a set of tasks

Here are some examples of its use online:

  • KMT, CCP agree to prioritize service trade agreement

  • How to Prioritize Your Debts

  • Council Approves Two Projects That Prioritize Pedestrian and Bike Safety

  • Four Must Know To-Do Lists To Prioritize Tasks

  • Strengthening parliaments in nascent democracies: the need to prioritize legislative reforms

As late as 1982, twenty years after prioritize entered the language, the OED acknowledged its existence, but included an apologetic note, saying, “prioritize is a word that at present sits uneasily in the language.”

Thirty-two years later, the OED site employs the word prioritizing unapologetically in a discussion of the term “network neutrality”:

This concept [network neutrality] has been the subject of much debate in recent years, reflecting something axiomatic for many Internet users; that all data on the net should be treated equally by Internet service providers, without favouring particular formats, products, or web sites by charging extra fees, prioritizing or blocking data of certain types, and so on.

The dictionaries I've checked in that do flag for 'formal' usage in 2016 (CDO and Macmillan) do not add the caveat for 'prioritize/prioritise'. And among the first 10 of the 45 000+ Google hits for "prioritise my" are examples 'Why I finally decided to prioritise my personal life over my' / 'How should I prioritise my debts?' [x3]/ 'Is there a way to prioritise my ps4's Internet usage?' / 'how could I prioritise my network connections' / 'Why I Decided To Prioritise My Daily Meditation' / 'I need to know how to prioritise my different devices on the new hub' (the other one may be more formal; it's by a business person).

In summary:

(1) There are Google Ngram hits for as far back as 1829 for 'prioritise', but very few. The major use (either spelling) has been post-1950.

(2) The evidence indicates that the verb is considered part of the lexicon now, and its use is by no means confined to formal (in particular bureaucratic) registers.

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