OT: eye exam or examination?

[Mr Sandman]

Vision express now uses the term "eye exam" instead of "eye examination"...which is correct?

Steve

[Andy Hall]

Irrelevant.

I wouldn't trust them to do either

[Lino expert]

Exam is the foreshortened version of the word examination.

[Lino expert]

Should have gone to Specsavers? ;o)

*Replies using correct button this time* Apologies!

[Alan]

In message , Mr Sandman wrote

Shorter words for those who have trouble seeing?

[Vass]

uk.rec.english is over there........>

[Lino expert]

Could be....but I can't see it myself.

[Bob Eager]

Eye test.

[Mark]

I'd say examination.

Exam usually means a written test to evaluate a students knowledge. Examination means to look closely. The definitions are however elastic enough for Vision Express to claim they are using the word correctly.

mark

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Err, exam is simply short for examination. But colloquial use commonly means as above.

Medical types usually prefer the longest possible words...

[sm_jamieson]

It's an americanism. A bit like math for maths. Simon.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

In this case they are right. Why shorten mathematics to maths? The plural is irrelevant.

[sm_jamieson]

The one that I find strange is the brand name "speedo" for swimming trunks, as in "where's my speedo ?" Just sounds like it should be a plural, since trunks or bathers etc is usually plural. Simon.

[Frank Erskine]

It's a bit like 'trousers'. Have you ever seen one trouser?

:-)

[sm_jamieson]

IIRC, a "trouser" was originally a long loose legging put over your pants (American/Scouse meaning i.e. not under-pants), and there was indeed 2 of them, but I guess they still always came in pairs ! So you could say "has anyone seen my other trouser ?" Simon.