Etymology Borrowed from French triage, from trier (“to sort”).
1
Assessment or sorting according to quality, need, etc., especially to determine how resources will be allocated.
Let us think of triage, and remember the word's origins. It began with French wool growers in the eighteenth century, but its most illuminating use comes from eighteenth century coffee bean growers, who sorted their beans into best, middling, and broken. The last category came to be known as 'triage coffee.' In war we attend to the most seriously wounded first, which is how most of [us] understand the word today. […] Therefore to protect the best and the middling, we must sell off our 'triage coffee.'2004, Paul M. Levitt, Dark Matters: a Novel, →ISBN, page 40:
[Mike Davis] notes that the 'late capitalist triage of humanity' has 'already taken place'.2007, Jeremy Harding, “It Migrates to Them”, in London Review of Books, 29:5, p. 26:
2
Medicine, Sciences The process of sorting patients so as to determine the order in which they will be treated (for example, by assigning precedence according to the urgency of illness or injury).
3
Medicine, Sciences A facility within a hospital that screens walk-in patients and determines which department or clinic to send them to. (See also triage center.)
I knew where most of the medical supplies were kept. I went to triage. The room was chaos.2013 11, John Macdonald, Question Authority, Balboa Press, →ISBN, page 170:
Triage was busy and noisy, and suddenly I had no energy.2016 August 24, Virginia Frusteri Sollars, And Some Will Triumph: Stories of the Mentally Ill in a Correctional Setting and the Nurses Who Care for Them, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN:
2 more examples
Using “Dr Google” for health purposes is controversial. Some have expressed concerns that it can lead to inaccurate diagnoses, bad advice on where to seek treatment (triage), and increased anxiety (cyberchondria).2021 March 29, Natalie Grover, “Looking up health symptoms online less harmful than thought, study says”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 24 Mar 2022:
She was told to hydrate and try some Tylenol and if it got worse, she was recommended to go to triage for evaluation.2023 June 13, Gilda Cinnella, Renata Beck, Antonio Malvasi, Practical Guide to Simulation in Delivery Room Emergencies, Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 129:
4
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, SciencesBroadly The process of prioritizing bugs to be fixed.
5
That which is picked out, especially broken coffee beans.
Similarly, any group of sidings is known to army railway personnel as a "triage". This word is derived from the French verb trier, which means literally "to sort," and hence "triage" has become the common army expression for a marshalling yard.1943 September and October, “Military and Civil Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 257:
Etymology Borrowed from French triage, from trier (“to sort”).
1
Medicine, Sciences To subject to triage; to prioritize.
Then, over 2001 and '02, he laid off 150 employees at MGI Software, a company he'd first "triaged" as a consultant for NPV Associates with his partner and fellow UCC alumnus Henry Eaton, before stepping in as CEO. Firing 30 per cent of the work force was necessary to save the company, insists NPV principal partner Eaton.2009 February 1, Linda Diebel, “Existential crises and a rage to save the Liberals”, in Toronto Star, archived from the original on 19 Sep 2010:
With the ambulance service the calls are triaged, so your response time can be anything from six minutes for a life-threatening call to an hour and a half for a broken limb.2020 January 2, Daniel Puddicombe, “SWR paramedics keeping passengers safe”, in Rail, page 34:
2 more examples
I flipped from the calendar app to the email app and logged in to view Cooper's. The unreads were staggering; I'd have to triage them later.2022, Michelle McCraw, Boss Me:
For three months I was trained to chat with people who might be thinking of suicide. I learned how to triage them, and what words must be avoided at all costs. […] Like with most A.I. chatbots, it triages people toward better-equipped services when it detects suicidal ideation.2022 September 27, Barclay Bram, “My Therapist, the Robot”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2022: