In the reverse examples the term “brownfield” is marked as being U.S. English, but this word is used routinely in Britain usually in the context of town planning or building: “smaller developments on brownfield sites”, “rehabilitating brownfield land” etc. It is certainly of U.S. origin: fifty years ago one would probably have said “wasteland” or “former industrial land” or “previously developed”.
Dictionary entry: désaffecté
Hello,
You are quite right, brownfield is routinely used in UK English. I've just had a quick look though, and it seems like there are some slight differences in definition. I'm going to forward this report to the English base for further investigation. Thanks for pointing it out.
You are quite right, brownfield is routinely used in UK English. I've just had a quick look though, and it seems like there are some slight differences in definition. I'm going to forward this report to the English base for further investigation. Thanks for pointing it out.
Hello again,
Now that I have my English base hat on, I've looked into this in more depth. It appears that brownfield in US English is a site that is left and will continue to be left undeveloped because it is or is thought to be contaminated. In UK English, of course, it's a site considered suitable for development, normally because there has been some kind of construction on the land before. I've added a UK sense to the US ones. It will be included in future translation projects and, once translated, will appear in the dictionaries the next time they are updated.
Now that I have my English base hat on, I've looked into this in more depth. It appears that brownfield in US English is a site that is left and will continue to be left undeveloped because it is or is thought to be contaminated. In UK English, of course, it's a site considered suitable for development, normally because there has been some kind of construction on the land before. I've added a UK sense to the US ones. It will be included in future translation projects and, once translated, will appear in the dictionaries the next time they are updated.