"not Fit For Purpose" Is This A Cliché Imported From The Usa?

[sandyRoe]

A while ago you wouldn't have heard it but now it's everywhere.

[jno]

apparently (I read recently) it was the watchword of Frank Pick and Charles Holden when they were designing London tube stations in the 1930s.

[237SJ]

No, I can`t say I have heard that expression in the US.

[sandyRoe]

Nothing new under the sun, then.

[Baldric]

ANY help?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/uptodate/2010/10/101026_kyeutd_fit_for_purpose_page.shtml

[humbersloop]

probably sandy

same as NSFW

[sandyRoe]

Interesting. Pick & Holden coined it and after it had faded away John Reid resurrected it.
we can't blame our American cousins. It wasn't a neologism minted on their watch
I had to google NSFW

[jno]

I don't know if Pick and Holden were the first, it could have come from anywhere.

Holden's stations were definitely fit for purpose and still look good today

http://www.google.co.uk/search?gs_rn=17&gs_ri=psy-ab&suggest=p&cp=17&;gs_id=97&xhr=t&q=charles+holden+tube+stations&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.48293060,d.d2k&biw=1748&;bih=936&um=1&;ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&;ei=o8fEUf2IF-aW0AWLsoCQBQ

[DJHawkes]

it's been used in consumer law for decades i know that

[humbersloop]

rest assured that the goodly unGodly will be doing the looking for you (sandy) and shouting "cover yer eyes"

it's only like the Saturday morning pictures really

[sandyRoe]

I only came up with, 'not safe for work' and looked no further. Are there more interesting definitions, or examples?

[humbersloop]

nope, that's the one

[DJHawkes]

http://www.tradedescriptionsact.co.uk/content/trade-description-act-fit-for-purpose-8.html

[sandyRoe]

So AB might be described as NSFW if you were employed in an environment where idleing away time you were paid for was frowned on?

[sandyRoe]

It seems to sit nicely in the language of consumer protection. You can see what was meant if an item bought was described as fit for purpose.
I'm not sure it fits as well in its wider usage.

[humbersloop]

I'd say so, though nobody here ever, *ever* does that

totes 'mazeballs if they did

[sandyRoe]

* described as not fit for... ^

[humbersloop]

didn't there used to be a fault for goods described as not of merchantable quality?

[FredPuli43]

It's a lawyers' abbreviated form of the words in the Sale of Goods Act 1893 s14 (1) , a long paragraph dealing with the buyer stating that the goods are for a particular purpose and the consequences if "they are not reasonably fit for that purpose", hence they say "not fit for purpose"

[FredPuli43]

Yes, humber, there was the term "merchantable quality" and it's found in the same section of the above Act. The Act was a masterpiece of draftmanship, by one man, drawing together and standardising an area of law which had been subject to different practices in different areas and different trades. But it was still a pain for students, who had to learn when title passed and many other details, quite apart from tackling words like "merchantable"