Training as a noun
May 21, 2015 1:06 PM Subscribe
When did people start saying "a training" to mean "a training session/workshop/meeting/program/etc"? What dialect of English did training-as-a-noun originate in? How did it spread?
I'm not sure that any of your questions can be answered perfectly by anyone.
1. It dates back to at least 1998, though I would not doubt the count-noun use is older.
2. It's jargon, not dialect. It appears in British and American Englishes, often in business and academia, and does not appear to have any geographic orientation.
3. It spread as all words spread: through usage along paths of influence (family to family, friend to friend, boss to employee, mentor to mentee, idol to idolizer, etc.). These are the same paths through which fashion, jokes, and other trend-like cultural items are passed.
Gerund nouns are made via a standard kind of English-language word formation. "Learning" as a count noun, for example, has risen concurrently with "training."
Other examples:
"A couple came by the model home for a showing."
"In his teachings, the guru said we are all blessed."
"This gathering would not be possible without Jada's work."
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:23 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
1. It dates back to at least 1998, though I would not doubt the count-noun use is older.
2. It's jargon, not dialect. It appears in British and American Englishes, often in business and academia, and does not appear to have any geographic orientation.
3. It spread as all words spread: through usage along paths of influence (family to family, friend to friend, boss to employee, mentor to mentee, idol to idolizer, etc.). These are the same paths through which fashion, jokes, and other trend-like cultural items are passed.
Gerund nouns are made via a standard kind of English-language word formation. "Learning" as a count noun, for example, has risen concurrently with "training."
Other examples:
"A couple came by the model home for a showing."
"In his teachings, the guru said we are all blessed."
"This gathering would not be possible without Jada's work."
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:23 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
PS: Here's the 1998 usage I mentioned above. It is not the earliest use of it; it is simply 17-year-old demonstration that the count-noun "training" is not very new.
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:26 PM on May 21, 2015
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:26 PM on May 21, 2015
Jogging was training in the 1970s. I recall my cousins in Pittsburgh wore "trainers" and thought that the word "sneakers" was strange, (but they also drank "pop" so what did they know?)
Wagon-training goes back at least to the 19th century and although the noun is a homonyn the ordinary English conversion to gerund is the same.
posted by three blind mice at 1:39 PM on May 21, 2015
Wagon-training goes back at least to the 19th century and although the noun is a homonyn the ordinary English conversion to gerund is the same.
posted by three blind mice at 1:39 PM on May 21, 2015
Hoo, boy. This is what dictionaries are for.
OED's earliest citation is 1578.
III. An act or instance of train v.1 II.
Categories »
8. Mil. A meeting or muster at a stated time for drill or training of militia, reservists, or volunteer forces; a military training session.
1578 in W. H. Stevenson Rec. Borough Nottingham (1889) IV. 179 Soldyours trayned with the Kallyver, thys Trayning beyng the 2 of October.
1616 J. T. ABC of Armes sig. A6v, In time of Musters or Traynings.
1806 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 12 Apr. 519 The great secret, however, is, how, at these trainings, to insure obedience to the commands of the officer.
1845 S. Judd Margaret i. xv. 129 Hash,..at the Spring training, was punished..for disorderly behavior.
1894 R. E. Robinson Danvis Folks viii. 145 Captain Peck..in his biggest military voice, usually reserved for trainings, gave the order.
1919 K. Miller Kelly Miller's Hist. World War for Human Rights xii. 233 The [Russian] soldier then passes to the reserve, where he serves for 14 or 15 years, during which period he receives two trainings of six weeks each.
1973 A. Seaton Army German Empire, 1870-1888 25 Reserve soldiers were liable to recall for two trainings, neither of which might exceed a period of eight weeks.
2009 in C. Davenport As you Were xvii. 227, I gave up opportunities to study abroad and possible internships so that I could train with my unit at drills and annual trainings.
(Hide quotations)
9. More generally: an instance or period of instruction or practice; a training session.
1598 I. D. tr. L. Le Roy Aristotles Politiques viii. iii. 384 It appeareth, that..it is needfull to learne certaine things, and to be instructed and trained in the same, and that these instructions and trainings be vndertaken for their sakes which learn.
1780 J. Green Plan for Better Regulation Mariners 1 The plan. To increase our number of mariners by putting them under proper trainings, so that boys may be real mariners.
1826 A. Henderson Pract. Grazier i. 64 The horse, from regular trainings to dread the whip and fear the voice,..will become all alive from even seeing the one or hearing the other.
1882 45th Ann. Rep. Superintendent of Public Instr. Michigan 1881 284 We all see the importance of some kind of gymnastic training to give the children erect, graceful forms... Teachers agree on the value of such trainings.
1923 Boys' Life Mar. 50/4 Scottie surprised his team with a thirty-pound sled in place of the seventy-pound one which he had used in trainings.
1988 T. Vellela New Voices v. 64 That's something we teach in the trainings, that victories are not going to come in a month or two.
2003 Yoga Jrnl. Nov. 24/3, I was recently in a training where the instruction was given in a forward bend to ‘blossom your buttocks’.
posted by zamboni at 1:40 PM on May 21, 2015 [7 favorites]
OED's earliest citation is 1578.
III. An act or instance of train v.1 II.
Categories »
8. Mil. A meeting or muster at a stated time for drill or training of militia, reservists, or volunteer forces; a military training session.
1578 in W. H. Stevenson Rec. Borough Nottingham (1889) IV. 179 Soldyours trayned with the Kallyver, thys Trayning beyng the 2 of October.
1616 J. T. ABC of Armes sig. A6v, In time of Musters or Traynings.
1806 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 12 Apr. 519 The great secret, however, is, how, at these trainings, to insure obedience to the commands of the officer.
1845 S. Judd Margaret i. xv. 129 Hash,..at the Spring training, was punished..for disorderly behavior.
1894 R. E. Robinson Danvis Folks viii. 145 Captain Peck..in his biggest military voice, usually reserved for trainings, gave the order.
1919 K. Miller Kelly Miller's Hist. World War for Human Rights xii. 233 The [Russian] soldier then passes to the reserve, where he serves for 14 or 15 years, during which period he receives two trainings of six weeks each.
1973 A. Seaton Army German Empire, 1870-1888 25 Reserve soldiers were liable to recall for two trainings, neither of which might exceed a period of eight weeks.
2009 in C. Davenport As you Were xvii. 227, I gave up opportunities to study abroad and possible internships so that I could train with my unit at drills and annual trainings.
(Hide quotations)
9. More generally: an instance or period of instruction or practice; a training session.
1598 I. D. tr. L. Le Roy Aristotles Politiques viii. iii. 384 It appeareth, that..it is needfull to learne certaine things, and to be instructed and trained in the same, and that these instructions and trainings be vndertaken for their sakes which learn.
1780 J. Green Plan for Better Regulation Mariners 1 The plan. To increase our number of mariners by putting them under proper trainings, so that boys may be real mariners.
1826 A. Henderson Pract. Grazier i. 64 The horse, from regular trainings to dread the whip and fear the voice,..will become all alive from even seeing the one or hearing the other.
1882 45th Ann. Rep. Superintendent of Public Instr. Michigan 1881 284 We all see the importance of some kind of gymnastic training to give the children erect, graceful forms... Teachers agree on the value of such trainings.
1923 Boys' Life Mar. 50/4 Scottie surprised his team with a thirty-pound sled in place of the seventy-pound one which he had used in trainings.
1988 T. Vellela New Voices v. 64 That's something we teach in the trainings, that victories are not going to come in a month or two.
2003 Yoga Jrnl. Nov. 24/3, I was recently in a training where the instruction was given in a forward bend to ‘blossom your buttocks’.
posted by zamboni at 1:40 PM on May 21, 2015 [7 favorites]
although the noun is a homonyn
The "verb" is a homonym. "Train" as in work out and "train" as in horse and wagons traveling one after the other.
posted by three blind mice at 1:43 PM on May 21, 2015
The "verb" is a homonym. "Train" as in work out and "train" as in horse and wagons traveling one after the other.
posted by three blind mice at 1:43 PM on May 21, 2015
Response by poster: Several responders have misunderstood the question. I'm not talking about the gerund 'training' (as in "she is in training for a marathon'). I mean the specific usage "a training" or "the trainings" or "these trainings" (as in "I attended a really great training at the conference" or "There is a training this afternoon for the new system").
It is used as jargon in many settings, but I asked about dialect because I it sounds very non-native-speaker to my ears. Note, for example, that the 1998 example given above was written by a person from Ukraine, who I suspect is probably not a native English speaker. I also wonder if it first appeared in British/American/Canadian/Australian/etc English.
posted by jedicus at 1:49 PM on May 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
It is used as jargon in many settings, but I asked about dialect because I it sounds very non-native-speaker to my ears. Note, for example, that the 1998 example given above was written by a person from Ukraine, who I suspect is probably not a native English speaker. I also wonder if it first appeared in British/American/Canadian/Australian/etc English.
posted by jedicus at 1:49 PM on May 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
Thanks, Zamboni. Spot-on. I was so focused on academic uses but should've gone bigger.
Jedicus, it sounds "non-native speaker" to your ears because it's a jargon from communities or domains in which you are not usually a participant. That's the nature of any kind of in-group lingo, be it slang, jargon, or terms of art.
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:53 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Jedicus, it sounds "non-native speaker" to your ears because it's a jargon from communities or domains in which you are not usually a participant. That's the nature of any kind of in-group lingo, be it slang, jargon, or terms of art.
posted by Mo Nickels at 1:53 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Hoo, boy. This is what dictionaries are for.
Yes and no. Every example you gave except the one from 2003 uses the plural form without an article, which is not what I'm asking about. Only the 1988 and 2003 examples use "the trainings" or "a training." So this seems to be a more modern usage, and I'd like to know a) is it in fact a modern usage? b) where did it originate? and c) how did it spread?
posted by jedicus at 1:54 PM on May 21, 2015
Yes and no. Every example you gave except the one from 2003 uses the plural form without an article, which is not what I'm asking about. Only the 1988 and 2003 examples use "the trainings" or "a training." So this seems to be a more modern usage, and I'd like to know a) is it in fact a modern usage? b) where did it originate? and c) how did it spread?
posted by jedicus at 1:54 PM on May 21, 2015
How about the one from 1845?
1845 S. Judd Margaret i. xv. 129 Hash,..at the Spring training, was punished..for disorderly behavior.
Or 1807:
1578 in W. H. Stevenson Rec. Borough Nottingham (1889) IV. 179 Soldyours trayned with the Kallyver, thys Trayning beyng the 2 of October.
You have not discovered a new snowflake here.
posted by JimN2TAW at 1:58 PM on May 21, 2015 [8 favorites]
1845 S. Judd Margaret i. xv. 129 Hash,..at the Spring training, was punished..for disorderly behavior.
Or 1807:
1578 in W. H. Stevenson Rec. Borough Nottingham (1889) IV. 179 Soldyours trayned with the Kallyver, thys Trayning beyng the 2 of October.
You have not discovered a new snowflake here.
posted by JimN2TAW at 1:58 PM on May 21, 2015 [8 favorites]
To clarify, you're asking for the beginning of saying "I have to go to a safety training" rather than "I have to go to safety training," or "to a safety training session."
Not that I can answer, apart from anecdotally; I've been hearing this specific use ("a training") going back about 15 years.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 2:07 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Not that I can answer, apart from anecdotally; I've been hearing this specific use ("a training") going back about 15 years.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 2:07 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
I think, to narrow down the part of the question about origination, the issue is when did "training" move from being a mass noun (not taking a/an or plural forms) to a count noun (taking a/an and plural forms). I do not have the answer, except to say that a) the formation of mass nouns through the suffix of -ing to a verb is a normal and well-established process, and b) that failure to distinguish between or understand mass and count nouns could well be due to interference from a first language. Your Ukrainian informant may well have made the mistake from new due to imperfect language skills, even if the usage already existed in English.
posted by Thing at 2:08 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Thing at 2:08 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Jedicus, it sounds "non-native speaker" to your ears because it's a jargon from communities or domains in which you are not usually a participant. That's the nature of any kind of in-group lingo, be it slang, jargon, or terms of art.
Which communities or domains is it commonly used in or did it originate in? That's part of what I'm asking.
The argument that it only sounds that way because I'm not usually a participant in those communities rings false to me because a) you haven't specified which communities and b) (presumably) you don't know which communities I typically participate in. For example, I have 3 degrees and work at a university, so I'm pretty well versed in academic jargon. I also regularly interact with lawyers, accountants, and other professionals, so I'm exposed to more business jargon than I would like, too.
Further, I wonder: do you assume a non-native origin every time you hear a slang term, bit of jargon, or term of art? If not, why would you assume that I would? Why not take it at face value that something about the phrase "a training" sounds not-quite-right to me in a non-native-speaker way rather than a "just sounds funny to me" way?
If the ultimate answer is "sorry, it's been used that way for a very long time in all kinds of places and ways. It's standard English everywhere and just sounds funny to you and no one else for unknowable reasons" then so be it. But the evidence presented so far feels a little weak.
posted by jedicus at 2:13 PM on May 21, 2015
Which communities or domains is it commonly used in or did it originate in? That's part of what I'm asking.
The argument that it only sounds that way because I'm not usually a participant in those communities rings false to me because a) you haven't specified which communities and b) (presumably) you don't know which communities I typically participate in. For example, I have 3 degrees and work at a university, so I'm pretty well versed in academic jargon. I also regularly interact with lawyers, accountants, and other professionals, so I'm exposed to more business jargon than I would like, too.
Further, I wonder: do you assume a non-native origin every time you hear a slang term, bit of jargon, or term of art? If not, why would you assume that I would? Why not take it at face value that something about the phrase "a training" sounds not-quite-right to me in a non-native-speaker way rather than a "just sounds funny to me" way?
If the ultimate answer is "sorry, it's been used that way for a very long time in all kinds of places and ways. It's standard English everywhere and just sounds funny to you and no one else for unknowable reasons" then so be it. But the evidence presented so far feels a little weak.
posted by jedicus at 2:13 PM on May 21, 2015
OP--mid-40s Southern US native here. Until I read your question, I wasn't aware that this usage was routine in any environment. If I've heard it before, I think I would have assumed there was an implied [session] after it or that it was an improvised neologism contingent on an understanding that training is too routine a topic to avoid enumerating in a simplified form, e.g. something one trainer would say to another. But a colleague telling me they have to leave town for a week to go to a training would strike me as unfamiliar. So I think, regardless of what any dictionary says, the usage has either still not achieved uniformity across all dialects or has lost it.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 2:46 PM on May 21, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Monsieur Caution at 2:46 PM on May 21, 2015 [3 favorites]
Gerunds are nouns. It's standard English.
But not all gerunds are countable nouns. I am a native speaker of American English but if someone said, "we will have a skiing this weekend" or "we enjoyed a dancing last night", that would sound like Balki Bartokomous to me. Of course, some gerunds do sound natural to me as countable nouns such as "paintings" or "drippings".
FWIW, I am late-30s and a lawyer with a commercial practice and I have not heard of "a training" until reading this question. It sounds unnatural to me, like weird Dilbert-speak.
posted by Tanizaki at 2:59 PM on May 21, 2015 [3 favorites]
But not all gerunds are countable nouns. I am a native speaker of American English but if someone said, "we will have a skiing this weekend" or "we enjoyed a dancing last night", that would sound like Balki Bartokomous to me. Of course, some gerunds do sound natural to me as countable nouns such as "paintings" or "drippings".
FWIW, I am late-30s and a lawyer with a commercial practice and I have not heard of "a training" until reading this question. It sounds unnatural to me, like weird Dilbert-speak.
posted by Tanizaki at 2:59 PM on May 21, 2015 [3 favorites]
Early 30s, social services, grew up in SoCal, in Seattle for ~10 years.
I've heard this used since at least the early 90s, specifically from my parents ("Mom has a training tonight, let's get pizza.") My parents are a lawyer and a social worker, and also spend some time in activist circles. I would never have thought of this as a new thing. I used the term yesterday, referring to an "All-Staff Training". Maybe you have to do the kind of work that has useless trainings all the time.
posted by kittensofthenight at 3:15 PM on May 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
I've heard this used since at least the early 90s, specifically from my parents ("Mom has a training tonight, let's get pizza.") My parents are a lawyer and a social worker, and also spend some time in activist circles. I would never have thought of this as a new thing. I used the term yesterday, referring to an "All-Staff Training". Maybe you have to do the kind of work that has useless trainings all the time.
posted by kittensofthenight at 3:15 PM on May 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
The usage you're referring is definitely modern Anglo-American business-speak, of the type beloved by those who say "proactive" and "paradigm."
What it is, if this helps at all, is just taking a phrase like "I have a training exercise" or "I have to go to a training session" and lopping off the extra noun that would normally come after "training." It's the kind of abbreviation that goes on everywhere when there's a phrase that gets used repeatedly but is fairly ponderous to say in full.
posted by drjimmy11 at 4:51 PM on May 21, 2015 [3 favorites]
What it is, if this helps at all, is just taking a phrase like "I have a training exercise" or "I have to go to a training session" and lopping off the extra noun that would normally come after "training." It's the kind of abbreviation that goes on everywhere when there's a phrase that gets used repeatedly but is fairly ponderous to say in full.
posted by drjimmy11 at 4:51 PM on May 21, 2015 [3 favorites]
(Well travelled English/Australian living in Australia): "A training" sounds totally weird to me. If someone said to me "I have to go to a training" my reply would be "A training what?" To my ears it sounds like they ran out of steam in the middle of a sentence.
posted by kitten magic at 5:29 PM on May 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by kitten magic at 5:29 PM on May 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
Agree that it sounds 'off' to my ear (native English speaker from Australia). But I do hear it from friends and family who work in international development (ie often in English as a second language settings) all the time. I always assumed that it was something of a back-formation from imperfect translation of something in the original language to English, which gradually spread. But that is a complete just-so story that I have no evidence for.
posted by une_heure_pleine at 7:27 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by une_heure_pleine at 7:27 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Another Aussie. I work for (OK, clock up time for) the Federal government, and we just fucking love us some consulting / business jargon. I'll proactively incentivise scaffolded KPIs to strategically align with your blue sky digital transformation paradigm until the cows come home.
But I have never, ever heard anybody use 'training' alone as a countable noun ("I'd like a training, please!"), and I'd look at them like they had three heads if they did.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 8:53 PM on May 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
But I have never, ever heard anybody use 'training' alone as a countable noun ("I'd like a training, please!"), and I'd look at them like they had three heads if they did.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 8:53 PM on May 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
Actually, you know what it does remind me of? 'Learnings'. Somewhere along the trail, we stopped learning lessons and started 'capturing learnings', and more than once I've heard somebody say 'what's a learning we could take away from this?'
They get the three heads look, but they do say it.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 8:55 PM on May 21, 2015
They get the three heads look, but they do say it.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 8:55 PM on May 21, 2015
Mo Nickels' late-1990s theory looks and sounds right to me as far as the origin goes. It definitely fits with the development of other corporate business jargon, although I'd argue it's less like learnings and more like source (as in, "we source our organic thingies from the artisanal family thingy-farms of Brazil"). My own linguistics jargon is failing me here, but the reason people do this is to reduce unnecessary a-semantic (meaningless) noise. There are N words that could follow "training," as you point out (session, meeting, etc.), that all mean roughly but not exactly the same thing. In order to eliminate the potential confusion of negotiating which of those N words is the most apt descriptor (is it a meeting? is it a seminar? is it a circus??), speakers started leaving it off entirely and just going with "the training," since that's the pragmatically important part of the phrase. The noun spot was just getting in the way and taking up more cognitive cycles than it deserved for the amount of value it added. Same with "source": it's a substitute for "[buy/get/acquire/steal/procure] from [implied source]", so speakers just started skipping the hollowly-noisy traditional verbs they had used, and skipping straight to the pragmatic purpose of the phrase, which is to tell the listener that you're about to discuss the source of something.
For the poll, American English speaker, this phrase does not sound at all strange to me.
posted by katya.lysander at 10:20 PM on May 21, 2015
For the poll, American English speaker, this phrase does not sound at all strange to me.
posted by katya.lysander at 10:20 PM on May 21, 2015
Just as another data point -- I work at an academic institution in California and using training in the way you describe is routine: no one would look askance if you said "the May training went well but the June training was abysmal" causally or referred to "the March 17 training" in an official report. I hear it constantly, and it has never seemed unusual to me. I have heard this usage at a number of academic institutions on the Northeast as well in the 2000s and 2010s.
posted by reren at 10:21 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by reren at 10:21 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Jedicus can correct me if I am wrong in interpreting, but I think the issue is best seen with the OP example of "A training," using the indefinite article, and that's what sounds weird to the ear. Using the definite article, or another modifier, like "The training," or "the May taining'" at least implies the unsaid word "session" whereas "a training" sounds incredibly odd to these American, formerly corporation, ears.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 10:36 PM on May 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 10:36 PM on May 21, 2015 [2 favorites]
East-coast USican here, and I think "a training" sounds very odd, and I've never heard it used.
posted by Maladroid at 12:20 AM on May 22, 2015
posted by Maladroid at 12:20 AM on May 22, 2015
Well, in a comment Jedicus identifies both a training and the trainings as unfamiliar usage. But saying "you have a training on x scheduled for tomorrow" also sounds fine to my ear. I can find several similar uses of "a training" sent to me by others in my email inbox.
posted by reren at 6:18 AM on May 22, 2015
posted by reren at 6:18 AM on May 22, 2015
Training is a gerund, the present participle of a verb (-ing). Gerunds are nouns. It's standard English.
That's not an adequate explanation, and as the OP has said, people seem to be misunderstanding the question. For instance, "learning" is also a gerund: "I love learning." That's a standard subject-verb-object sentence, with gerund as the object, a noun (gerund). However, there's no article. You wouldn't say: "I love a learning." If you said that, listeners would think English isn't your native language. Now, you could distinguish "training" by the fact that it's a countable thing: one training session (not the entire activity of training, as in the activity of "learning").
However, "a training" is something I've never heard of until reading this post. I'm 34, grew up in Wisconsin, have worked in Texas, and live in New York City. I understand the logic: it's a snappier way of referring to a training session. I would just never say it — I'd either say "We're going to have a training session" or "We're going to be in training for ___."
posted by John Cohen at 6:39 AM on May 22, 2015
That's not an adequate explanation, and as the OP has said, people seem to be misunderstanding the question. For instance, "learning" is also a gerund: "I love learning." That's a standard subject-verb-object sentence, with gerund as the object, a noun (gerund). However, there's no article. You wouldn't say: "I love a learning." If you said that, listeners would think English isn't your native language. Now, you could distinguish "training" by the fact that it's a countable thing: one training session (not the entire activity of training, as in the activity of "learning").
However, "a training" is something I've never heard of until reading this post. I'm 34, grew up in Wisconsin, have worked in Texas, and live in New York City. I understand the logic: it's a snappier way of referring to a training session. I would just never say it — I'd either say "We're going to have a training session" or "We're going to be in training for ___."
posted by John Cohen at 6:39 AM on May 22, 2015
It has the flavour of generic second-language euro-English to me. Its the sort of expression that translates fairly directly from many other European languages, and which therefore tends to dominate in situations where a large number of non-native English speakers are obliged to speak in English for pragmatic purposes. This then takes on a life of its own.
Indeed, in support of this origin, it is one of the terms mentioned in the wonderful document Misused English Words and Expressions in EU Publications, which was produced to help translators and interpreters working for the EU. This document has the following to say about "a training":
Indeed, in support of this origin, it is one of the terms mentioned in the wonderful document Misused English Words and Expressions in EU Publications, which was produced to help translators and interpreters working for the EU. This document has the following to say about "a training":
This is one of a series of gerunds used creatively but incorrectly as countable nouns (a training, a screening, a prefinancing, a planning), which is not generally possible in English.and elsewhere in the document:
A number of the errors mentioned in this paper can be ascribed less to a question of meaning than to an aspect of English grammar that seems to have gone relatively unnoticed in the English teaching in European schools – the distinction between countable and uncountable (or mass) nouns. ... This concept is fundamental for an understanding of the errors found with words like ‘action’, ‘aid’, ‘competence’, ‘conditionality’, ‘training’, ‘screening’, ‘precision’ and ‘prefinancing’).posted by Jabberwocky at 2:48 PM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
One of the things I do for work is create and deliver professional development events. Trainings. I am a trainer! I train teachers, nurses, community based organizations, advocates, young people, doctors, school or health administrators, and others in the community health and education fields.
As an example of common uses in my work environment, these are some sentences that would come out of my mouth without thinking twice:
I have to design a training by next week.
I'm supposed to do three trainings for the schools by the end of the year.
Is anyone going to the sexual assault prevention training next week?
How many trainings do you think we can do without going over budget?
Want to sit in on my training tomorrow?
Will you observe my training and tell me what I should do better next time?
First time I heard or used the word in this way was around 1993.
posted by Stewriffic at 5:51 AM on May 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
As an example of common uses in my work environment, these are some sentences that would come out of my mouth without thinking twice:
I have to design a training by next week.
I'm supposed to do three trainings for the schools by the end of the year.
Is anyone going to the sexual assault prevention training next week?
How many trainings do you think we can do without going over budget?
Want to sit in on my training tomorrow?
Will you observe my training and tell me what I should do better next time?
First time I heard or used the word in this way was around 1993.
posted by Stewriffic at 5:51 AM on May 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Linnee at 1:19 PM on May 21, 2015 [7 favorites]