I’ve just finished having a huge discussion in my office about the word (or nonword) “restoral”. At first I thought it was just a North American thing and the Aussies simply don’t use it, but I asked around a bit of my North American brethren, and no one is backing me up there either. In fact, most have never even heard of this word.
So…where the hell did I pick this up? I looked it up in dictionary.com and a couple of other online references. It does come up. It’s a noun. But it always just refers to the word “restoration”. The Aussies use the word restore, as in “what is the status of the mail file restores?”. I tried to explain to them that restore is a verb, an action, and that restoral is the noun, the thing, the object.
If you start typing restoral in Google, it will come up with the suggestion “restoral fee”. All of these links point to telecommunications companies with phrases like “Cingular restoral fee” or “AT&T Service restoral fee” or “Verizon Adds Free Service Restoral to Relief Efforts.” This makes a little sense because I used to work for Telus — a telecomms company — when I lived in Vancouver. Maybe I just picked it up there.
But if you Google just the word restoral, you find other contexts: “Acrylic Aquarium Restoral Kit Instructions”, “Veterans Petition for Restoral of Constitution as Supreme Law of the Land Petition”, and my personal favourite, “Restoral of nail fungus infected fingernails and toenails…”.
So. What’s the verdict? Is this a legit word or what? And if it is, why has no one heard of it?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Sorry dude, it’s new to me (and I think it sounds weird).
I’ve never heard it before, but seems you’ve legitimized it so we can all add it to our vocab now!
I’ve never heard it before either, but it seems awfully useful. Perhaps I shall now add it into my vocabulary.
Thanks Nancy. I’ve been quite self-conscious about it since it was pointed out to me…it came as a total shock because I’ve never thought about it and it just seems normal to use. Perhaps I’ll start a revolution!