Missing triage

1961 dictionary? That is a medical buzzword that has made its way into the mainstream vocabulary, but just recently. I wouldn't expect to see it in a 1961 dictionary.

...to save me an entire afternoon browsing, can anyone explain why I can't find the word "triage" in Webster's 1961 Collegiate

1727, "action of assorting according to quality," from French triage "a picking out, sorting" (14c.), from Old French trier "to pick, cull" (see try (v.)). There seems to be some influence from or convergence with Latin tria "three" (as in triage for "coffee beans of the third or lowest quality"). In World War I, adopted for the sorting of wounded soldiers into groups according to the severity of their injuries, from French use.
First of all, the wounded man, or "blessé, is carried into the first of the so-called "Salles de Triage" or sorting wards. Here his name and regimental number, and if he is in condition to give it, the address of his family are taken; .... Then a hasty look-over from the surgeon sends him into one of the two other "Salles de Triage" -- that of the "Petits Blessés" if he is only slightly wounded and that of the "Grands Blessés" if he is more severely so. [Woods Hutchinson, M.D., "The Doctor in War," Boston, 1918]

...early 18th century: from French, from trier ‘separate out.’ The medical sense dates from the 1930s, from the military system of assessing the wounded on the battlefield.

Does it matter?

Honestly, if you know what it means then what is the problem?

More on the etymology of the word however shows it going back to the 1700s....and should be in a '61 dictionary

...too small...Same answers as others gave you.