Comments on: “Remediate” v. “Remedy”

By: Ken Adams

Ken Adams — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:04:29 +0000

"Remediation" meaning to mediate again is very clumsy. And any scenario that could result in confusion between that meaning and the "cleanup" meaning would have to be really, really far-fetched.

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:00:44 +0000

I was just searching for "remediate v. remedy" and stumbled on this discussion. I need to use the appropriate word in a sentence where a seller should remediate/remedy certain conditions before selling the property. I think that real estate transactions is another area where remediate is more suitable. On the other hand, and no one mentioned it, the meaning of remediate can potentially be confusing with a concept of re-mediation (i.e. when you have to mediate a dispute the second time).

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:28:50 +0000

Remediate, in the sense of environmental cleanup, is one of the few reverse formations that does not bother me. (“Cohabitate” particularly nauseatates me, even more than “administrate.”) Is the remedy for an environmental problem the cleanup (remediation), or is it a monetary award, civil or criminal penalty or injunctive relief, or is it a judicial or administrative proceeding seeking that relief? Using “remediation” removes the ambiguity.

By: Ken Adams

Ken Adams — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:08:36 +0000

Eoin: I suspect that the bifurcation began not with remediate but with use of remediation rather than remedying. And I'm comfortable with the bifurcation. The medical sense of remedy, namely applying a cure, has a very different flavor than does remediate, which, at least in the environmental context, conveys the sense of cleaning up. Ken

By: Eoin O'Dell

Eoin O'Dell — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:53:36 +0000

Hi Ken,

I agree that in the educational and environmental contexts to which you refer, there is in “remediate” an implication of practical remedial action to achieve a specific goal which is not exactly co-terminous with “remedy”. However, this specific meaning of “remediate” is plainly a subset of “remedy”, which is why I suspect that GMAU sees it as redundant.

But even if the need for a specific usage is conceded, that raises several questions. First, was it in fact necessary to develop the new word? Perhaps not, since I think that the specific shade of meaning in “remediate” is probably a sub-set of the more general “remedy”, and so this latter word could have easily have accommodated the same implication of action. Second, even if it was necessary to develop it in the educational context, was it necessary to spread it to the other, environmental, context? If so, then it is likely to spread beyond these two contexts into areas where it is thought that the same implication of practical action is also appropriate. And if that happens, it will become increasingly difficult to insist on the difference between “remedy” and “remediate” as infinitives.

Indeed, I have heard many politicians seeking to strike activist poses use “remediate” in non-educational and non-environmental contexts when they plainly can only mean “remedy”. The fact that “remediate” is, at best, a specific contextual sub-set of “remedy” is being lost, and the two are increasingly being equiperated, with “remediate” becoming the “wordy” way of saying “remedy”. This is to be deprecated, and for this reason, I would be more in tune with the philosophy underlying GMAU