Simviation Forums

March -  
Got excited... the only really great month I had... finished a jigsaw puzzle in 6 months.....box said "2-4 years!"

April -  
For the 5th year in a row, I got trapped on an escalator for hours during a power outtage!!!

This one always amused me.
A typical example of the Americanised version of an expression being longer than the original. Even blondes in the the UK would call this a power cut.

the term "blackout" became politically incorrect i take it?

This is a list of famous wide-scale power outages

The Northeast Blackout of 1965 on November 9, 1965.
The New York City Blackout of July 13-14, 1977, resulted in looting and rioting.
On December 19, 1978, a major blackout affected 80% of France.
The Great Storm of 1987 brought down power lines throughout southern England causing extensive blackouts.
On March 13, 1989, a geomagnetic storm caused the Hydro-Quebec power failure which left 6 million people without power for 9 or more hours.
The January 1998 Ice Storm in northeastern North America caused prolonged blackouts, particularly in Quebec where many transmission towers were destroyed by ice.
The 1998 power failures in Auckland, New Zealand: see 1998 Auckland power crisis
During the California electricity crisis there were regular power failures due to energy shortages and market manipulation resulting from failed deregulation.
On August 14, 2003, there was a wide-area power failure in the northeastern USA and central Canada, affecting 50 million people: see 2003 North America blackout.
There was a 2003 London blackout on August 28 which won worldwide headlines such as "Power cut cripples London" but in fact only affected 500,000 people.
On September 2, 2003, a power failure affected 5 states (out of 13) in Malaysia (including the capital Kuala Lumpur) for 5 hours starting at 10 am local time.
On September 23, 2003, a power failure affected 5 million people in Denmark and southern Sweden.
On September 27-28, 2003, a power failure affected all of Italy except Sardinia, cutting service to more than 56 million people. (see 2003 Italy blackout)
On December 20, 2003, a power failure hit San Francisco, affecting 120,000 people.
On September 4, 2004, five million people in Florida were without power at one point due to Hurricane Frances, one of the most widespread outages ever due to a hurricane.
On May 25, 2005, most part of Moscow was without power from 11:00 MSK (+0300 UTC). Approximately ten million people were affected. Power was restored within 24 hours.
On August 18, 2005, almost 100 million people on Java Island, the main island of Indonesia which the capital Jakarta is on, and the isle of Bali, lost power for 7 hours. In terms of population affected, the 2005 Java-Bali Blackout was the biggest in history.
On August 22, 2005, all of southern and central Iraq, including parts of the capital Baghdad, all of the second largest city Basra and the only port Umm Qasr went out of power for more than 7 hours after a feeder line was sabotaged by insurgents, causing a cascading effect shutting down multiple power plants.
On August 26, 2005 1.3 Million People in South Florida lost power due to downed trees and power lines caused by the then minimal Hurricane Katrina. Most customers affected were without power for four days, and some customers had no power for up to one week.
On August 29, 2005 Millions of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama residents lost power after a stronger Hurricane Katrina badly damaged the power grid.
On September 12, 2005, the Los Angeles blackout affected millions in California.
On October 24, 2005, Hurricane Wilma caused loss of power for most of South Florida and Southwest Florida, with hundreds of thousands of customers still powerless a week later, and full restoration not complete until November 11.  

can't help it, i find the the word "blackout" in connection to power failures and later than WW II

well, in this case i guess it's because in american english a "power cut" usally refers to an engine that gets power reduced to idle.

This is also true with electrical supply, especially in earlier years. Heavy loads cause a "cut" (reduction) of power to the recipients, whereas an outage indicates a complete shut-down of supply. Properly, a "blackout" would be similar to Hagar's description, being effected at the recipient end but terms are often interchanged. Also realize that @ 11,000,000 in the U.S. are illiterate in any form of English and may use whatever seems anywhere near applicable.
Considering application, for many [particularly, not natural] blondes, "blackout" may mean something quite different!

OUTAGE - "a period of interrupted service, as of electric power or gas. 1903, formed from 'out,' adv. + 'age,' on the model of shortage." "The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology" by Robert K. Barnhart (HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1995).

it probably didn't actually exist until some bright spark dreamed it up.