h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Apparently, a word that I have always known as one meaning to review with an intent to change... is being used to mean "study"?

I mean, you revise a book by making it better, right?

Where from cometh this other use of the word?



I mean, here I am, whizzing along, trying to figure out how to remember all these mnemonics, and all of a sudden, *thump*, wait a second, what was that?

How can I membrize anything if I'm not sure what you're talking about?

To be honest, it is simply application of a process to an non-written form. Given that revise means "to reconsider and change" it can be applied equally to the text of a book or the content of your own understanding. A student will 'revise' (or study) to reconsider their understanding so as to ensure that it complies with existing facts - revising Shakespeare to ensure they understand what Hamlet is all about; revising the English Civil War to ensure they know who bashed who, why and where; revising quantum theory to ensure they don't disappear down the wrong black hole.

Does that make some measure of sense in the use of the term?

The Apprentice

Okay, so then it is used in the sense of re-view, only they're using the french original version re-vise, which is related to visual, vista, visor or vis-a-vis?