Energy law and the grid

Near the end of this list stands la zona di offerta, the bidding zone, and the noun inside it is a trap for anyone who reads markets in English. L’offerta covers the whole of what a party puts forward: the price a generator asks, the price a buyer will pay, and the reduced price in a shop window. Market English refuses to be that generous. On an order book a « bid » is what a buyer will pay and an « offer » is what a seller wants, the two face each other across the same screen, and calling one by the other turns the trade round. On a power exchange the parties are putting in prices to buy and to sell, so the settled English name is the « bidding zone » and never the « offer zone ». The same division runs on into procurement, where the paper a company sends in is a « bid » or a « tender », while an « offer » is what the seller holds out first. One Italian noun, and English picks a different word each time, according to which side of the deal is speaking.