In 'versed, well-versed!', WordWind noted the following:
On a tangent, but related, I heard a very well-educated and accomplished conductor scold a youth orchestra musician for referring to a staff as a line. The youth had asked about a measure on, say, "The third line." The conductor scolded, "Lines appear on the staff. What you meant to ask me about was the measure on the third staff."
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In the choir I sing with the lines of music on the page are always referred to as a 'system' - has anyone else heard this usage?

My understanding would be that a 'staff' is to notes like the page is to words and is used for providing a notation method. Inevitably it has to be broken up to fit onto a page with each split section becoming a system in the way that words split into lines.

Have any of the other musicians got alternative terms for this? Is there an atlantic divide? Is it unique to my choir?

What do you reckon?