While traveling recently through RDU Airport’s new Terminal 2 (that’s the one with the “C” gates—go figure), I noticed that the usual terms “Baggage Claim” and “Ground Transportation” were supplanted by “Bag Claim” and “Ground Transport.” I can only imagine the tens of dollars the airport must have saved by eliminating nine letters from each of those signs; but is this good usage?
The style guides I consulted—Fowler’s Modern English Usage, Garner’s Modern American Usage, The Chicago Manual of Style, and The AP Stylebook—had nothing to say regarding the use of bag vs. baggage or transport vs. transportation. So I turned to the most modest of all reference books, the dictionary, for guidance. Both bag and baggage are defined as “luggage,” and both transport and transportation are defined as “a system for conveying people or goods.” It appears that in this sense, the word pairs can function as synonyms.
But another question remains: is there a reason to prefer baggage when it’s used as a modifier? Neither bag nor baggage is defined as an adjective, so grammatically, there’s no reason to use baggage claim rather than bag claim. That’s just what we’re accustomed to. The English language is constantly evolving, and Americans in particular prefer simplicity. So bag claim and ground transport it is, at least here in Raleigh-Durham. We’ll see if other airports go along.
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Did you consider the fact the “baggage” is an uncountable noun and “bag” is not? This difference, to me, makes “Baggage claim” more acceptable than “bag claim”.
Did you consider the fact THAT “baggage”. I type too fast.
Joe, that’s an interesting point about “baggage” being a mass noun and “bag” being a countable noun. That might be one reason I prefer “baggage.”