7 ms·
Or is it in fact the original meaning? (Genuinely curious)
by ehayes 5y ago
Or is it in fact the original meaning? (Genuinely curious)
- function_seven 5y agoYeah, pretty sure this is the literal origin of the term. Or closer to it anyway.
- runlevel1 5y agoSo far, the only dictionary I see with any hint at the etymology (apart from saying it's cut + over) is Wiktionary. From: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cutover https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cutover 3. The process of quickly replacing a telephone switchboard, in which the connections are duplicated to the new machine and the original connections are then suddenly disconnected. 1913: Bell Telephone News, vol. 2, no. 7, page 18: > After the heat coils were pulled on the old main frame, the remaining step was merely to pull the wooden plugs on the new switchboard by the strings attached to them (which are bunched together) upon a signal given from the old terminal room, indicating the removal of the heat coils above mentioned. By this means the cut-over was accomplished almost momentarily, the process occupying not over two seconds’ time. Surprisingly, many dictionaries don't have this sense of the word at all. EDIT 1: Changed the dictionary from Wordsense to Wiktionary since that's where they were getting it from. EDIT 2: Interestingly, articles in "Bell Telephone News" also use the term "cut into service": > Two telephone exchanges which the Western Electric Company has been installing in Pekin, China, were cut into service on April 2 > In June, 1910, the second unit (Belmont) B board was cut into service > Cut-Over at Watertown - The New York Telephone Company's new exchange at Watertown, NY, has been cut into service. I wonder if "cut into" refers to splicing. Or, it could just be that "cut into" naturally emerged because "cut over" didn't adequately capture the case where no previous connection existed.