work in progress/process
Posted: Wed Oct 18, 2023 12:08 pm
I seem to be seeing "work in process" more frequently recently, where I'd expect to see "work in progress". Maybe it's just what I happen to be reading, because an n-gram shows that as of 2019, "progress" occurs about four times as often as "process". In fact, "progress" has consistently been more frequent than "process" since the beginning of the timespan shown, 1800.
Both plots show peaks and valleys, with the most noticeable feature appearing in about 1945: a dip in "progress" corresponding to a peak in "process", in a ratio of about 3:2. That's the high point of "process", and it's been more-or-less subsiding ever since. "Progress" ebbs and flows, with its peak in about 1980, about 15% above where it is now.
"Progress" implies something with a clear start and finish (a game, or the writing of a book), while "process" usually refers to a continuous activity (perhaps work done on an assembly line). But n-grams don't supply context, so what might account for the difference in usage?
Both plots show peaks and valleys, with the most noticeable feature appearing in about 1945: a dip in "progress" corresponding to a peak in "process", in a ratio of about 3:2. That's the high point of "process", and it's been more-or-less subsiding ever since. "Progress" ebbs and flows, with its peak in about 1980, about 15% above where it is now.
"Progress" implies something with a clear start and finish (a game, or the writing of a book), while "process" usually refers to a continuous activity (perhaps work done on an assembly line). But n-grams don't supply context, so what might account for the difference in usage?