Join the masses who listen to A Way With Words, the call-in radio show and podcast about words and language.
Catchword for “infant-mortality failure”
Catchword: infant-mortality failure
Filed Under: , ,
Part of Speech: n.
Quotation: Dr. Ulrich’s analysis of NTSB data proves conclusively what I’ve long believed to be true: By far the highest risk of catastrophic engine failure occurs when the engine is young—during the first two years and 200 hours after initial manufacture, rebuild or overhaul—due to what we refer to as “infant-mortality failures” involving defects in materials and/or workmanship in assembling the engine.
Article or Document Title:
“The Savvy Aviator #53: The Dark Side of Maintenance” (URL)
Author:
Mike Busch
Article, Document, Publication, Web Site:
AVweb
Date of Publication:
Jan. 17, 2008
This catchword has yet to be researched.
Posted 22 Jan 08 | Permalink | Tell a Friend
Comments:

Infant mortality is a well established term for referring to the left-most (decreasing) portion of the even-more-well-known Bathtub Failure Rate model. 

Here are some citations from google book search:

“Dynamic Business Strategy: The Art of Planning for Success”
page 19.2
1977

“Advances in Instrumentation”
v.41 pt.1
page 144
1973

“IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices”
v.26 1979 Jan-Jun
page 38
orig. pub 1963

See also this page:
URL
which describes the bathtub model in detail and cites a study in the 1950s as originating it.  It also cites a work (of which I would only find newer copies online) published in 1961.


by John 23 Jan 08, 0149 GMT

Leave a comment, which must be approved by the moderator before it will appear. Courtesy matters!

Keep in mind that we're interested in terms that are not well-covered in mainstream dictionaries, or not covered at all. A mass of unexamined Google hits counts for nothing, but an early use of the term you've found in a book or periodical is very useful. A term does not have to be new to be recorded here, it merely needs to be worthy of more attention.
Name (mandatory):

Email (mandatory):

Location (optional):

Your Web Site (optional):

Remember my personal information

Notify me, by email, of follow-up comments.

Recent Catchwords
cutter t-shirt n. (10/10)
Taliban union n. (10/10)
suicide headache n. (10/10)
packing for Perth n. (10/9)
zombie economy n. (10/9)
wasteman n. (10/9)
stinkin’ thinkin’ n. (10/9)
Delaware effect n. (10/9)
skronk n. (10/8)
carting n. (10/8)
balloon addendum n. (10/8)
nuclear winter n. (10/7)
recessionista n. (10/7)
paint the tape v. phr. (10/7)
Minnewisowa n. (10/7)
fluffy n. (10/7)
charticle n. (10/6)
window-dress v. (10/5)
doughnut effect n. (10/5)
Southwest effect n. (10/5)
 More catchwords...
Lexicographer's Rules
Where would we be without “ass”? (10/8)
Organizing Our Marvellous Neighbours (10/6)
What a bitchin’ word! (9/24)
Don’t forget about the dialect: dauncy/donsie, faunch, and jockey box (9/10)
Wilf? Yuffer? Get real! (8/27)
Lexicographer Laurence Urdang Dies at 81 (8/26)
A thesaurus can be harmful (8/6)
Can bad language punditry be stopped? Can false attributions for classic quotes be fixed? (7/27)
There’s one in every country (7/23)
Scottish Language Dictionaries fundraiser (7/12)
 More blog entries...
Find A Word  »
 A   B   C   D   E 
 F   G   H   I   J 
 K   L   M   N   O 
 P   Q   R   S   T 
 U   V   W   X   Y 
 Z   0-9 
Search
Search Site

Google Site Search
Recent searches: "ted"… TED… crunk… book… 3… full service…
New Comments
Jill Michrina commented on Bradley effect (10/9)
Steve Short commented on bleeding deacon (10/8)
mike donovin commented on human flesh search engine (10/8)
cassandra commented on pump head (10/8)
chinga commented on güey (10/7)
rajan commented on cope up (10/6)
Rod Teague commented on Taig (10/3)
Deborah Davenport commented on balloon construction (10/1)
lawmak commented on talk out (the side of) one's neck (10/1)
Peter Heck commented on spiff (10/1)
Vickie Hamrick commented on singlism (10/1)
Jay-Low commented on rocket surgery (10/1)
Wilson Gray commented on night trick (9/29)
Lou commented on Yankee dime (9/28)
Bruce Savoy commented on rexing (9/28)
Subscribe to the RSS feed. • Subscribe to the mailing list. • Browse the archive. • Add to Technorati Favorites. • © 1999-2008 by Grant Barrett, Double-Tongued Dictionary, New York City.