I heard this last evening on The Bill O’Reilly Show on Fox News Channel.
Question:
What is the difference between “relevancy” and “relevance”?
Explanation:
The host of the show asked a guest, “Does that have any relevancy [to the topic being discussed]?”
The word “relevancy” struck me as odd, given that I grew up using the word “relevance”, so I researched these two words.
According to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary:
- “relevancy” is a noun that dates back to 1561 and today primarily means relevance;
- “relevance” is a noun that dates back to 1733 and today primarily means relation to the matter at hand.
This gives us the answer to the question.
Answer:
There is no difference in primary meaning between between the older noun “relevancy” and the younger noun “relevance”.