What is a "quint"?

"Quint" Fire Engine at Vancouver Fire Station

Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services, Quint 4

So, what is a "Quint"? Well, the prefix "Quint" means five, so I would expect that this fire engine would fulfill five functions. But what are they? The five functions are, "pump, water tank, fire hose, aerial device, and ground ladders".

Well, that makes perfect sense, but it does raise an issue that most industries are faced with. There are lots of specialized terms used in industries that make little of no sense to people outside the industry. And if you use those terms and expect your customers to understand them, you may be in for a surprise.

When I worked at Eddie Bauer, we would refer to products by their SKU number. (A men's Chamois Cloth Shirt was 1462.) But the customer had no reason to know what the SKU number was, and to expect the customer to know and use our internal shorthand was not entirely reasonable.

So, while I now know what a "Quint" is, that does not mean that the general public does. And if you use a specialized term in your industry, or within your company, you need to make sure that your customers know what you are talking about.