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A.Word.A.Day--therblig

therblig (THUR-blig) noun

In time and motion study, any of the basic elements involved in completing a given manual operation or task that can be subjected to analysis.

[Americanism, anagram of F. B. Gilbreth (1868-1924), American engineer.]

Therblig is a near reversal of Gilbreth. Some other words coined by reversing words are, yob (a rowdy youth), coined by reversing boy, and mho (the unit of electrical conductance), coined by reversing ohm, the unit of resistance. -Anu

"Later, there were attempts to marry the two methods into a system or systems where Therbligs were assigned specific times." David S. Ferguson, Don't call it `time and motion study', IIE Solutions, May 1997.

This week's theme: eponyms derived from fact and fiction.

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