Use With Caution— “Revert”
Quite possibly the most abused word in the electronic mail landscape, “revert” can usually be found at least once in your emails for the day. If you have gotten an email with this phrase “Please revert as soon as possible”, feel free to charge the sender with culpable homicide not amounting to murder of the English language.
Revert does not mean “reply”; it actually means “to return to a previous state”.
Wrong usage:
1. Please revert with the details.
2. I’ll revert to you with more details
3. Please revert at the earliest.
4. I will revert back to you later
Correct usage:
1. A witch turned a princess to a frog. But, when the prince kissed the frog, it reverted to the princess form.
2. When the sun rises, the werewolf reverts to its human form.
3. Due to significant problems in the version 3.2, Microsoft reverted the popular Microsoft Excel software to version 3.1.
4. She reverted to her evil ways.
“Revert to me with the details” literally means I am asking you carry that details and become me (probably by drinking a magic potion or by the kiss of a prince ). In other words the meaning is “Sometime later I will become you or change back to you which also implies that sometime back I was you”. Stupid, right?
A correct and friendlier sentence that you can use to replace “Please revert as soon as possible” is “I look forward to hearing from you soon.”
