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I am not a native English speaker.

I work in IT and we have a kind of ticketing system to track reported issues.

I am not sure whether it is correct to ask people to file a ticket by saying "Lodge a ticket", as I heard a colleague saying "Log a ticket".

So which one is right?

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  • I suspect you need to look at the definitions. Though you may hear one word used and mistake it for the other, in some contexts, and others may even use the wrong word at times, the two words have fairly distinct definitions and would not normally be used in the same context.
    – Hot Licks
    Jun 8, 2017 at 22:51
  • To simplify my earlier comment. I think "make a ticket," "create a ticket," "put in a ticket" are more native. But "log" has become acceptable and apparently popular. Its "log" because putting in a ticket establishes a "log" of the work that was done. "Lodge" is not right. "Lodge a ticket" sounds like lodging a physical ticket into a crack in a wall or something like that.
    – developerwjk
    Jun 8, 2017 at 22:58
  • You could also open a ticket to log an issue.
    – Roger Sinasohn
    Jun 8, 2017 at 23:12
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    While log is more widely used, lodge is not "wrong" here. I've noticed a few folks indicating that it is incorrect and it just isn't. It's just not the best choice
    – Dancrumb
    Jun 9, 2017 at 1:00
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    In the contrary, the IT department is quintessentially the proper authority when it comes to resolving tickets. No other department has the authority or capabilities to handle those problems.
    – Dancrumb
    Jun 9, 2017 at 2:55

3 Answers 3

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Either is appropriate and in fact, I think lodge is more appropriate. You can lodge a ticket since, by definition, that means "to put or bring (information, a complaint, etc.) before a court or other authority" and that other authority could be your IT Department. Log could also be appropriate to mean to document, but you aren't simply logging a ticket to document it -- you are presumably bringing the ticket before your IT department for resolution.

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  • The availability of a definition does not mean that distribution (of a verb with direct objects, say, as here) is guaranteed universally idiomatic. '... lodged a factoid ...' would not convince many people of the speaker's fluency.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jun 9, 2017 at 1:45
  • Of course. But in this case, it's right.
    – StatsStudent
    Jun 9, 2017 at 3:30
  • Answers on ELU are rarely upvoted (and perhaps the reverse) unless they contain supporting evidence. You can no doubt supply a dictionary reference for the definition you give, but an example where '[a] ticket' is used as the DO for the verb 'lodge' in a reasonably authoritative work is really needed. At the moment, it is difficult to say that this answer is more than opinion or evidence of local practice.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jun 9, 2017 at 10:51
  • I did forget that lodge is used of complaints, but its only complaints. You can lodge a complaint, but you can't lodge a ticket. Nobody says that. I've never even heard any IT consultants from India say "lodge a ticket." So its definitely wrong in the sense that nobody uses it and people will be like "what?"
    – developerwjk
    Jun 9, 2017 at 16:04
  • Well, I guess that's what happens when English is a second language? I hear "Lodge a ticket" all the time in the United States. So while it might be definitely wrong in the sense among non-native speakers, it's certainly valid in that same sense among native US-speakers. Let's suppose that your argument regarding complaints is cogent. In that case, isn't a helpdesk ticket a complaint that something isn't working and therefore, "lodge" would be just fine?
    – StatsStudent
    Jun 9, 2017 at 16:14
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It's definitely log rather than lodge. Consider these definitions of log as both a verb and a noun:

log

NOUN

  1. A part of the trunk or a large branch of a tree that has fallen or been cut off.

  2. An official record of events during the voyage of a ship or aircraft.
    ‘a ship's log’

    2.1 A regular or systematic record of incidents or observations.
    ‘keep a detailed log of your activities’

VERB

[WITH OBJECT]

  1. Enter (an incident or fact) in the log of a ship or aircraft or in another systematic record.
    ‘the incident has to be logged’
    ‘the red book where we log our calls’

    1.1 (of a ship, aircraft, or pilot) achieve (a certain distance, speed, or time)
    ‘she had logged more than 12,000 miles since she had been launched’

    1.2 Make a systematic recording of events, observations, or measurements.
    ‘the virus can log keystrokes that you make when you access all sorts of services’

In this case, you're using the verb form #1. This is very common in the IT world.

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3
  • I found many insurance companies using "Lodging your claim" !!! allianz.com.au/home-insurance/claims
    – asmgx
    Oct 12, 2018 at 7:44
  • I spent 2 years in IT working for an insurance company (US) and never once heard anyone use lodging to refer to a claim. I've spent nearly 40 years in IT in various industries (marketing, leasing, pharmacies, education) and have never heard anyone lodge anything other than a complaint -- support tickets are always logged. But this is in the US and it may be different elsewhere. (Absent a specified dialect/location, I tend to assume AmE.)
    – Roger Sinasohn
    Oct 12, 2018 at 16:22
  • Thanks Roger, I heard it in the radio in ABC news in Australia they use lodge claim and I googled it I found all insurance websites in australia using lodge.
    – asmgx
    Oct 13, 2018 at 13:44
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To log is to record. To lodge is to push something in so it stays there.

While sorry to be a party pooper, I have to say that both log and lodge are actions a user cannot perform to the ticket, only the Help Desk can. What users do is to open a ticket.

  • You have a "kind of ticketing system to track reported issues."
  • You have the system at the Help Desk.
  • You track the issues by logging them based on the problem they have reported.

You ask people to file a ticket by saying "Please open a new ticket and log your issue. Label it ABC, as that is the category you described. We will look into it based on its priority, and follow it through to resolution within the next 24 hours."

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2
  • A user could also raise a ticket, or more interestingly file it, which is quite similar to lodge
    – Chris H
    Jun 9, 2017 at 6:44
  • Evidence shows that your definition for 'log' does not accord with all senses in which it is used nowadays. Metonymic broadening is a constant factor in English.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jun 9, 2017 at 10:56

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