different between redundancy vs retrenchment

English

Etymology

redundant +? -cy

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???d?nd(?)nsi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???d?nd?n(t)si/, /??-/
• Hyphenation: re?dun?dan?cy

Noun

redundancy (countable and uncountable, plural redundancies)

1. The state of being redundant
2. A superfluity; something redundant or excessive; a needless repetition in language
3. Duplication of components or circuits to provide survival of the total system in case of failure of single components.
   • 2006, Lauren Bean, Richard E. Friedman, Chapter 5: School Safety in the Twenty First Century: Adapting to New Security Challenges Post-9/11, James J. F. Forest (editor), Homeland Security: Protecting America?s Targets, Volume 2: Public Spaces and Social Institutions, page 108,

     Staff redundancy is needed in the event that a supervisor and key unit supervisors are not present or unable to act in an emergency.

4. Duplication of parts of a message to guard against transmission errors.
5. (chiefly Britain, Australia, New Zealand) The state of being unemployed because one's job is no longer necessary; the dismissal of such an employee; a layoff.
   • 1981, New Zealand House of Representatives. Parliamentary Debates, Volume 442, page 4212,

     Has he received any representation from Air New Zealand management about redundancy proposals for Air New Zealand staff; and, if so, do these proposals include redundancy agreements?

   • 1983, UK House of Commons, Papers by Command, Volume 40, page lvi,

     The potential savings did not take into account once-and-for-all staff redundancy costs of £16.5 million and unspecified costs involved in increasing stock levels […] .

   • 2003, K. Brendow, Restructuring Estonia?s Oil Shale Industry: What Lessons from the Restructuring the Coal Industries in Central and Eastern Europe?, Oil Shale, page 307,

     In Estonia, in addition, the ethnical aspects of staff redundancy programmes have to be taken into account.
6. (law) surplusage inserted in a pleading which may be rejected by the court without impairing the validity of what remains.

Synonyms

• (state of being redundant): redundance (rare), pro-chrono continuum (rare), superfluity, superfluousness
• (thing that is redundant): dead wood, superfluity
• (duplication in case of transmission error): backup
• (state of being unemployed): retirement
• (instance or act of dismissal): sacking

Antonyms

• (state of being redundant): non-redundancy
• (state of being unemployed): employment
• (instance or act of dismissal): hiring

Hyponyms

• space redundancy
• time redundancy

Derived terms

• Common Access Redundancy Protocol
• cyclic redundancy check/CRC
• Department of Redundancy Department
• redundancy check

Translations

References

• redundancy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???t??n(t)?m(?)nt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???t??n(t)?m(?)nt/, [?i-]
• Hyphenation: re?trench?ment

Etymology 1

Probably partly from both of the following:

• Middle French retrenchement, retranchement (“removal of a portion from a larger whole; reduction of expenses”) (modern French retranchement (“deduction, subtraction”)), from retrancher, retranchier (“to get rid of, remove completely; to remove a portion from a larger whole; to reduce expenses; to deprive (oneself) of”) [and other forms] + -ment (suffix forming nouns usually of an action or a state resulting from an action). Retrancher and retranchier are derived from Old French re- (prefix meaning ‘again, once more’) + tranchier, trenchier (“to cut”) [and other forms] (modern French trancher (“to slice”)); the further etymology is uncertain, but one possibility is that the Old French words are from Latin trunc?re, the present active infinitive of trunc? (“to mutilate by cutting off pieces; to truncate”), from truncus (“tree trunk; piece cut off”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *twer?- (“to carve; to cut off, trim”).
• retrench (“to cut down, reduce; to reduce expenses; to make (an employee) redundant”) +? -ment. Retrench is derived from Middle French retrancher, retranchier: see above.

Noun

retrenchment (countable and uncountable, plural retrenchments)

1. A curtailment or reduction.

   Synonyms: cutting down, diminution, lessening

   1. (specifically) An act of reducing expenses; economizing.

      Synonym: cutback
   2. (specifically) An act of terminating the employment of a worker or making an employee redundant, often to reduce expenses; a layoff.

Usage notes

Sense 1.2 (“act of terminating the employment of a worker”) is common in countries like Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Africa, but uncommon in Britain and the United States.

Translations

Etymology 2

Probably either from:

• Middle French retranchement (“defensive work”) (modern French retranchement (“entrenchment”)), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again, once more’) + tranche (“trench”) + -ment (suffix forming nouns usually of an action or a state resulting from an action); or
• retrench (“to construct one or more retrenchments; to protect using retrenchments; to fortify”) +? -ment. Retrench is probably derived from Middle French retrancher, retranchier (“to fortify with trenches and banks”), from Old French re- + tranchier, trenchier (“to cut”); see further at etymology 1.

Noun

retrenchment (plural retrenchments)

1. (military, dated) A defensive work constructed within a fortification to make it more defensible by allowing defenders to retreat into and fight from it even after the enemy has taken the outer work.

Translations

References

Further reading

• layoff on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• retrenchment on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• retrenchment (military) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• retrenchment (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia