Definition Non-Conformance vs. Nonconformance vs. Non Conformance - Which is correct?

  • Thread starter Anthony Houghton
  • Start date
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Wes Bucey

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#32
. Sorry I was seeing the comparison between ISO 9001:2000 with ISO 14001:1996 standard.
No auditor I have ever known would call attention to an organization using "nonconformance" instead of the word "nonconformity."

Frankly, my preference is for using conformance and nonconformance because the words "conformity" and "nonconformity" sound antiquated and stilted to my American ear. Of course, much of the language in ISO Standards sounds antiquated and stilted to my American ear. It's a result of the documents being decided upon by committees of folks, many of whom learned English from old British texts, not American ones. Here in the Cove, we see many Britishisms and other regional usages as a result of the disparity between versions of English used in countries as varied as USA, Canada, Scotland, Ireland, India, Australia.

Some of the more frequent ones:
while/whilst
among/amongst
amid/midst
color/colour

Next, we will probably see English (or so some might call it) from old poetry like Robert Burns:
Address To The Toothache

1786
Type: Address

My curse upon your venom'd stang,
That shoots my tortur'd gums alang,
An' thro' my lug gies mony a twang,
Wi' gnawing vengeance,
Tearing my nerves wi' bitter pang,
Like racking engines!

When fevers burn, or argues freezes,
Rheumatics gnaw, or colics squeezes,
Our neibor's sympathy can ease us,
Wi' pitying moan;
But thee-thou hell o' a' diseases-
Aye mocks our groan.

Adown my beard the slavers trickle
I throw the wee stools o'er the mickle,
While round the fire the giglets keckle,
To see me loup,
While, raving mad, I wish a heckle
Were in their doup!

In a' the numerous human dools,
Ill hairsts, daft bargains, cutty stools,
Or worthy frien's rak'd i' the mools, -
Sad sight to see!
The tricks o' knaves, or fash o'fools,
Thou bear'st the gree!

Where'er that place be priests ca' hell,
Where a' the tones o' misery yell,
An' ranked plagues their numbers tell,
In dreadfu' raw,
Thou, Toothache, surely bear'st the bell,
Amang them a'!

O thou grim, mischief-making chiel,
That gars the notes o' discord squeel,
Till daft mankind aft dance a reel
In gore, a shoe-thick,
Gie a' the faes o' Scotland's weal
A townmond's toothache!
Even I would need a glossary to convert most of the words he used less than 300 years ago. (Ten years after the American Revolution of 1776!)

Heck. Abraham Lincoln used the term "fourscore" less than 150 years ago - today, only poets might use the term instead of "eighty."

Even today, some folks in Great Britain weigh themselves in "stone" instead of kilograms.
wiki said:
The stone is a unit of weight. It is part of the Imperial system of weights and measures used in the British Isles, and formerly used in most Commonwealth countries. It is equal to 14 pounds and to 6.35029318 kilograms.
Eight stone make a hundredweight in the Imperial system.
The plural form of stone is correctly stone, though stones is sometimes used, not usually by natives of the British Isles. The abbreviation is st.
I'm not sure about the math, though. Fourteen pounds times eight equals one hundred twelve pounds, but they seem to call it "hundredweight." What's twelve pounds among allies?;)
 
A

Anthony Houghton

#33
Hey guys,

Thanks for the responses. Both conformity and conformance are in the OED
I think where my confusion arose was with the hyphenation of the word. They do not put words into the dictionary that are a negative of an already existing word. They do however put non- in as a separate entry:bonk:

:topic:After delving deeper into the depths of askoxford.com I managed to discover a page on correct usage of the hyphen.

ASK OXFORD and also a page discussing the common and more importantly 'as used by industry' hyphenation (see about 6 paragraphs down)

INFORMATICS

It is apparent that even for the folks on the wrong side of the pond (England ;)) correct English and its usage is a difficult subject! I'll get back to my studies and buy a new dictionary! :read:

:thanx:

p.s. Sorry for the links - you'll have to cut and paste them in to your browsers. I don't have enough posts against my name to put them onto my posts as actual links.

ADDED : Anthony, I have corrected the links
 
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A

Anthony Houghton

#34
:D Good morning to you. Thanks for adding the links in. It'll certainly make peoples lives easier. Guess I'll just have to pull my finger out and get posting some more.

Anthony
 
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V

vanputten

#35
Yes, the OED said "Nonconformance is not a word." Come one, Jim, give me a break.

And as far as I know, the world wide process for ISO to define words is easy and they use any dictionary they want.:sarcasm:

Should I have been more specific in my intent? I stated, "According to the Oxford English Dictionary..."

I say everyone determine if the attached is the most recent version of ISO / IEC Diectives, part 2. If you determine that it is not the most recent version, please provide the most recent version. Then read the whole thing and get back to us.

You may want to review how synonyms are used and what "deprecated" means. "Conformance" is synonymous with "conformity" but deprecated.

I can't beleive I referred to a non-prefered dictionary (OED.) I should have gone to one of the following:

From ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, 2001

A.2 Reference works for language
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
The Concise Oxford Dictionary
The Collins Concise English Dictionary
Webster’s New World College Dictionary
Chambers Concise Dictionary
Dictionnaire Robert
Dictionnaire Larousse
Dictionnaire des difficultés de la langue française, V. Thomas, Larousse
 

Attachments

V

vanputten

#37
More confusion from me. :D

I did refer to the Concise Oxford Dictionary which is reference work for language per the ISO Directive. I thought I had the OED on my desk but I have the COD. I refered to an approprite reference work when I looked for the history, part of speech, and definition of "conformance.". The COD does not list "conformance."

Also, I should have mentioned that the ISO / IEC Directives, part 2 explains all about the strucutre of documents, formatting, numbering, symbols, all kinds of stuff. It can be a source of clarification when the structure of an ISO document or text is confusing.

Did anyone determine if the 2001 revision is the newest? What about "conformance" being a synonym for "conformity" but deprecated?
 

Jim Wynne

Staff member
Admin
#38
Did anyone determine if the 2001 revision is the newest? What about "conformance" being a synonym for "conformity" but deprecated?
Deprecated by whom?

A word about the OED and its siblings: It is, generally speaking, a dictionary of British English. It's a terrific resource, but if you want what I consider the best American dictionary, look to American Heritage.
 
V

vanputten

#39
3.6.1 of ISO 9000:2005 states that "the term 'conformace' is synonymous but depreated. I guess this means deprecated by ISO?

I wasn't stating my preferred dictionaries. I was stating what ISO specifies as reference works for language per ISO Directives. See A.2 of ISO / IEC Directives, Part 2.
 
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